


I Can Take Anything

by Crazyloststar



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Angst, Blow Jobs, Eventual Smut, M/M, Mutual unrequited crush on noctis, Strangers to Lovers, Travel, and prompto is the ray of sunshine he didn't know he needed, in which iggy tries not to lose his cool about 98476 times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2019-09-23 23:53:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17090114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazyloststar/pseuds/Crazyloststar
Summary: The misadventures of two strangers as they try to make their way back home to Insomnia in time for Noctis's engagement party.Emphasis on the wordtry.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this for a month now, but am finally feeling good enough about it to post the first chapter. It's my first promnis fic, so I hope you enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ignis starts to realize things won't be easy.

Ignis considered himself a number of things that made him capable of doing his job: Confident. Calm. Deliberate. Consistent. Neat.

Usually he would also list Patient, but this evening one Mr. Ardyn Izunia had managed to remove almost all patience he had left in his physical being. Ignis was at the end of spending several days tied up in intense negotiations with the Aldercapt Corporation, led by Ardyn, and tonight they were, finally, signing the contract.

Ardyn would sign on behalf of Ravus Nox Fleuret, while Ignis signed on behalf of Noctis Lucis Caelum.

Whose engagement party was in precisely three nights. And there was still much to do to prepare for it.

But Ardyn had opted to spend the last hour reading the same contract they had agreed to that morning, slowly. He used a single finger to follow the words on each page, and would lick, actually _lick_ , his fingers to flip to the next, and then flip back his terribly shaggy head of hair. Each time he did this, Ignis had to resist the urge to recoil in his seat.

“You seem anxious, Ignis.” Ardyn’s voice dripped with amusement as he lowered his hand to finally sign the paperwork. Ignis wished he could promptly remove that grin with a swift punch, and tried to hide the small smile as he imagined how that would play out. Violence wasn’t usually his style, but Ardyn had always had a way of bringing it out in him, even if just in whims.

“I have a flight back to Insomnia tonight, Mr. Izunia. Eager to head out.” He folded his hands in his lap, having already signed his name on the contract. He kept his eyes trained on Ardyn as the mediator slid the folder out from under his hands that still hovered over the paper.

“Ah, yes, how rude of me. I assume you have a lot to do, to help Noctis prepare for his nuptials? And the party of course?” He hummed, and Ignis did everything he could to hold his composure. To refer to Noctis so casually…

“As I’m sure you and yours must as well, since Lady Lunafreya is his betrothed.” Ignis stood and buttoned up his suit jacket, then briskly picked up his briefcase and small carry-on he had brought with him. He knew the reminder was pointless, but really he just wanted to get out of there, and remind Ardyn of where their attentions should be, instead of the usual petty war with words.

Ardyn snickered and also stood, placing his floppy hat, a stupid silly looking thing, on his head. “Ah yes, Ravus is fluttering about like it’s his own wedding he’s got to plan. I’ll let him handle it as far as I’m concerned -”

He tipped his hat. “-babysitting and arranging flowers isn’t my kind of thing.”

Ignis knew it was a dig at his own working relationship with Noctis, and his job in general, but he didn’t rise up to it. Instead he nodded his head in a farewell before turning towards the door. Three days of Ardyn was more time than he wanted to spend near the man in a year, and yet soon he would have to see him, multiple times, over the course of the engagement and wedding.

“Safe travels back to Niflheim,” Ignis let his voice rise just a tad as he got to the door, not bothering to turn around.

“I have no say in the matter,” Ardyn shouted to Ignis’s back as he passed through the door.

The heavy door shut behind him with a loud echo through the hallway.

“Die then,” Ignis muttered as he rushed forward to the escalator. He was only slightly serious.

He made his way through the tall building without interruption, texting to his assigned driver for the trip to assure he would be ready as he took the elevator down. He also sent word to Gladio and Noctis that he was on his way to the airport, business had concluded successfully, he was very exhausted, and had Noctis eaten dinner.

He breathed a sigh of relief to receive confirmation from his driver, and to see the sleek black car already in front of the building as he exited the glass doors. The air was shockingly cold, and he walked quickly instead of bothering to get his scarf and heavy coat out of his carry-on.

A stock young man with his hair pulled back in a low ponytail and who probably moonlit as a bouncer stood next to the car with the trunk open, his eyes focused on the dark sky above.

“Everything alright, Libertus?” Ignis handed his luggage over once attention had turned to him. Libertus wasn’t new to the company, but it was their first time working together. He found the man trustworthy, though a bit rough around the edges.

“Just looks like a bad storm is coming.” He sighed out and slammed the trunk shut. “Traffic leaving the airport will probably be a mess.”

“Apologies,” Ignis offered as he moved to the backseat door. “The sooner we get there, then hopefully the easier it will be for you.”

“Oh come on! You’re clearly on duty!” A shrill voice echoed out. Ignis held the door open but looked up in time to see a young man, clearly in distress. He was blond, dressed in torn jeans and a baggy shirt, with a large black hoodie hanging off one shoulder. He was attempting to pull a carry-on behind him that was on the verge of losing a wheel while chasing down a taxi. Or more accurately, yelling at a taxi.

Ignis narrowed his eyes - the boy looked vaguely familiar, and if he weren’t in a hurry maybe he would try to discern why. But as it stood he had a flight to catch. He got into the car as the first flurries of snow started to fall outside. Once Libertus started to drive, Ignis pulled out his phone to check the responses to his other messages.

_Noctis: Did you find them????_

Ignis let out a sigh.

_Ignis: Yes of course I found the cakes._

_Noctis: yiiiiiiiiiis_

Ignis scowled at his phone. He had hoped that Noctis would eventually sound a bit more….mature...as time went on and he took over his father’s company. But it seemed he held on to his youth via texts with a startling death grip.

Ignis would never admit out loud that it was endearing.

 _Ignis_ : _In return I expect you to have eaten dinner, including vegetables, tonight._

_Noctis: i totally did yup_

When Ignis went to his messages from Gladio, though, he saw exactly what he had predicted.

_Gladiolus: He ordered pizza before I got to him, and by the time I showed up he had passed out with the box on his chest. Don’t worry, I’ll slip him some vitamins in his water._

Ignis clicked his tongue. He wondered how Lady Lunafreya would be at handling the bachelor lifestyle Noctis seemed to want to cling to.

Ignis tried not to think about how he had been the one to handle Noctis and all his quirks best, who understood his whims, and didn’t try to change him as a person but work within those boundaries to help him be the best he could be.

No, he wasn’t going to think about that, and about how that would all change once Noctis was married and had moved on.

_Ignis: Thanks for your help. I know he’s a handful._

_Gladiolus: Don’t worry about it. Just get home safe. And soon, please._

He set his phone down to avoid looking through emails to give himself a chance to breathe, and instead mentally plotted out his plan of attack once at the airport.

The truth was he _hadn’t_ found the Tenebraen cakes, yet. But he knew there was a small bakery at the airport that always carried them, so he intended to pick them up there. It would be the easiest thing for him to do that day, so no reason to worry Noctis that he wouldn’t return with his favorite treats. And as long as traffic to the airport was moderate, he would make it just in time for boarding after picking up the cakes. And he would even have time to grab some coffee and perhaps solve a crossword or two while waiting for boarding.

His phone buzzed again in his hand.

 _Noctis_ : _youre seriously the best thanks ily_

_Ignis: Of course, Noctis._

Ignis shifted in his seat and lowered the phone, lifting his hand to cover his mouth to hide his smile as he stared out the window and watched the snow whip around the car. He would cherish the little moments he had left.

 

* * *

 

Prompto fell back into one of the last free seats in the waiting area at his gate with a loud sigh of relief. He smiled nervously at some of the people around him who gave him a _look_ , but really he didn’t care. He had managed to somehow not fuck up his promise.

In his hands he carefully cradled a small box filled with the specially requested Tenebraen cakes. He couldn’t believe that he had made it on time _and_ managed to get the last of the cakes. If they had been out he wasn’t sure how he would have broken the news. He probably would have just not gone home, maybe camped out in the airport to make sure he didn’t leave until those cakes were in his possession. Or something like that.

And as much as he was bummed his flight had been delayed, at least it had meant he had more time to relax after running through the airport at top speed and nearly toppling three separate angry looking suits.

Grinning at himself, he pulled out his phone and held up the box, snapping a quick selfie that featured the box prominently. He checked the pic and chose a filter that hid the shadows under his eyes just enough. At least his glasses helped a bit too.

Prompto: _I got them! See?_

_Noct: fyeah you did thanks prom! <3_

Prompto bit his lip and lowered his phone right as a man - a suit - sat across from him, looking extremely irritated. Prompto offered a soft smile and a nod - they say just seeing someone smile helps ease someone’s tension. And in airports usually everyone needed that.

The man didn’t smile back. He basically did the opposite as he narrowed his eyes at Prompto. There was something familiar to him that Prompto couldn’t quite place, but he just sat back and smiled again when he realized the guy...was still looking at him.

“When did you get those?” The man asked in a low voice, with a hint of an accent Prompto couldn’t quite place, and still no smile.

“These?” Prompto looked down at his box of cakes. “Just before I got to the gate. Last ones too, that’s some good luck right? I couldn’t believe it.” He bounced a little in his seat.

The man’s gloved hands curled into fists. “How much?”

“Eh?” Prompto’s glasses slid down his nose a little and he fumbled to adjust them. “How much for what??” He tried not to squeak but he knew he failed.

“For those cakes. How much.” Grumpy Suit Man crossed one leg over the other and folded his hands in his lap. He looked like a dude ready to make an important deal, which confused Prompto even more. They were just cakes!

Okay, he knew they were more than _just cakes_ because if he returned to Noct without them he wouldn’t hear the end of it for the rest of his life. And knowing that if he _did_ bring them back, Noct would smile that stupid dorky smiled he loved so much...

Prompto couldn’t help let out a chuckle to hide the way his pulse raced. “Sorry dude, these aren’t for sale. I made a promise to someone I’d bring them back.”

The man straightened up even more somehow and adjusted his glasses. “Perhaps I can convince you - I’m willing to pay, name your price.”

Prompto furrowed his brows. Apparently Grumpy Suit Man was also loaded, but he was sure no amount of money would make up for disappointing Noct. “I’m good, dude.” Sure he could use the money. But not to lose the chance to make his best friend happy.

Grumpy Loaded Suit Man actually _growled_ and looked away sharply _._ Prompto wasn’t sure if he was meant to hear it, but it was there. Prompto’s eyes widened and he clung to that precious box a little tighter, half expecting the man to jump him since he apparently wanted them so badly.

As he stared a bit more, he went back to that feeling from before of familiarity. Then the man pulled out a can of something from his small bag - Ebony, opening it and --

“Hey!” Prompto said probably a bit too loud for the small space between them judging by the looks he got once again. “Wait, I know you!”

The man turned sharply back to him, one eyebrow raised as he was about to take a sip of his drink.

“Ya! You work with N--”

“Good evening everyone,” a voice came on over the speakers around them. Prompto jumped in his seat, but looked towards the counter of their gate where a woman attendant spoke.

“Thank you for your patience. We will now begin boarding passengers with First and Business Class tickets.”

Across from him, the man collected his belongings and stood, then made his way to the line forming at the gate. Of course he had a fancy ticket. Especially if Prompto was right and he did work with Noct. Which he was 90% sure of. He would just have to figure it out when he got back to Insomnia. He thought his name was something like Iggy, but was worried that might just be a nickname from Noct.

He pulled out his phone to browse various social media sites while waiting for his group to be called up, looking for a distraction. That guy… got him nervous. And his own immediate reaction to the chance of not bringing those cakes home to Noct had been so intense. He had been a tad defensive and brushed the guy off, and he knew he could have been nicer, or maybe worked out a deal, somehow. But.

But deep down Prompto was afraid that his relationship...friendship...with Noct was going to change soon. He was going to be married, and have his own life to worry about. Prompto wasn’t sure where he fit in, anymore. He hardly knew Luna, didn’t even know if she liked him. He liked to think that his best friend wouldn’t change anything even when married, but it didn’t mean Prompto couldn’t be worried…

Things hadn’t changed when Noct had taken over his dad’s company, not really. Mostly. Sometimes he had to work late, but even then they would still just eat late night pizza and watch bad movies until falling asleep on the couch when they could.

Social media wasn’t helping. Prompto slipped his phone back into his pocket and pulled his hoodie up over his head.

Maybe after the engagement party, he would try to be a bit more honest with Noct. At least about his fears.

Not about everything, of course.

 

* * *

 

“Sir, I apologize for this inconvenience, but --”

“Inconvenience?” Ignis repeated and took his ticket back from the attendant. She looked exhausted, and while Ignis could relate, he also wanted things to just go as they should. It was that simple. “An inconvenience would be if I just had the wrong seat here, but sending me to Economy when I have a Business Class ticket is just a glaring error on the part of your company.”

The woman shifted her gaze to another attendant nearby, and Ignis realized he was making a scene. He pulled his shoulders back as she looked to him again. He couldn’t lose it and risk not being able to even board the plane.

“I apologize sir. All business class seats are booked and accounted for, we can certainly refund you the cost to make up for this mistake.”

Ignis would take care of this later, that much was certain. With a frustrated wave, he made his way back to his new seat, stuffed no doubt in a seat with zero personal space. He wasn’t the tallest, certainly Gladio would remind him, but his legs were long and one of the added benefits of Business Class was of course the leg room.

He just hoped he would sit next to quiet, smaller people. Who took up no space and didn’t make eye contact. This evening was certainly adding up to be one of his more frustrating in recent memory. Ardyn set him off on his bad mood, and then their car had been rear ended at a redlight. They were okay, but it took time of course to sort that out.

And then to top it all off, by the time he had made it to the airport, his flight had at least been delayed, but the bakery had been out of the cakes. They had ‘just been bought’.

Ignis had been ready to toss everything to the ground and give up. Instead, he had started calling up favors to folks who would be coming out to the engagement party. Surely he could somehow convince Noctis he needed to earn the cakes in order to delay…

Though it would be easier if that punk kid could just let him buy them off him.

_I have to say…_

_Fuck._

He made his way, mumbling his row, 23, until he got to --

“Oh, hey again!”

He looked down at the much too cheery voice to see the young man from before, still holding on to his box of cakes.

And beside him, in the middle of the row, was an empty seat. And then at the window was another man, fast asleep and taking up as much space as he possibly could while doing so.

And it was Ignis’s seat. Of course it was.

He sucked in a breath of air. “It looks like that is my seat.” He spoke calmly, trying to maintain a level of politeness in the sea of people surrounding them. He tucked his carry-on into the overhead bin.

“Oh! Sure thing, sec.” The young man undid his seatbelt and navigated himself out of his seat to allow for Ignis to slide into the middle. For the briefest of moments, Ignis brushed up against his body as he moved into the row. He heard a muttered ‘sorry sorry’ but didn’t answer. He ignored the contact as he sat, too focused on what he had been condemned to for the next 10 hours.

It was all the kinds of horror that Ignis had been afraid of - upon sitting he noted how crunched into his seat he was, with his knees hitting the back of the seat in front of him. He slid his bag under the seat and put on his seatbelt, immediately closing his eyes to try to pretend none of this was happening.

And maybe to spend a little time to figure out how to swindle his new neighbor out of those cakes.

“Okay, I totally figured it out.” The man with the cakes spoke, clearly not understanding the universal language of ‘please don’t talk to me’ used by those who travel.

Ignis opened one eye and stared incredulously. The boy’s soft blue eyes were wide behind the thick rimmed glasses, and blond hair fell over his forehead. Looking over his outfit now, Ignis realized he was the same person who had been shouting at a taxi in front of Aldercapt.

“You work with Noct!” He exclaimed as he turned in his seat so he was facing Ignis, which was quite a feat considering the limited space.

“You know Noctis?” Ignis was hesitant to admit too much to a stranger.

“Ya, I’ve seen you around his apartment a few times. But usually I’m just playing video games in the living room while you guys do your uhm, business stuff, in the study.”

Ignis opened his other eye. He must have been really tired, because in that moment he didn’t remember there being someone else in the house when he went to see Noctis. He recalled the TV being on, but somehow there being another entire person there was removed from his memory. “Forgive me, I don’t recall.”

“Ah, it’s okay!” He waved a hand, and then stuck it out towards Ignis. “I’m Prompto!”

Ignis didn’t want to open the door for familiarity on this cramped flight. He wanted to have some peace and quiet before getting back to Insomnia, where he would have to spend every waking moment after that preparing for the party.

But there was also a side of him that, unless under the most extreme circumstances, forced him to be polite. So he reached out his hand and joined it with Prompto’s, giving it a solid shake.

“Ignis, pleasure.” He said and cleared his throat, pulling his hand away. He reached forward into the seat pocket to look for some sort of menu to determine what kind of terrible meal he would be subjected to on this flight.

“Ignis! That’s it! Noct uh, calls you Iggy though, right?”

“On occasion,” he grit his teeth, because no one but Noctis was ever allowed to use that nickname, “but my preference is Ignis.” He found a small pamphlet that seemed to list snack options, but no other food. He sat back, tapping the menu against his lap. This meant he would only get a choice between two options: mediocre and awful. Lovely.

“Oh sure, I get you. Totally cool. Sometimes Noct calls me Prom but if other people do it I’m like ‘whoa dude slow your roll’, right?”

“Quite,” Ignis found it took so much energy to keep up with Prompto. He closed his eyes again as the attendants began to do their safety instructions. If he were in business class, he would have received a hot towel already, his shoes would be slipped off and feet snuggled into a pair of slippers.

Instead as the plane took off, he was squeezed between a living breathing representation of chaotic energy, and a man with obscenely fake-tanned skin and silver hair who snored.

Ignis squeezed his eyes tight, repeating his mantra.

_For Noctis._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Aren’t you supposed to be on a plane?”_ Gladio’s voice cut through the noise of the room like a beautiful harmony. 
> 
> “In theory,” Ignis answered, “if there weren’t a snowstorm that made us land in Accordo.” 
> 
> ***
> 
> Not only are things not easy, but things aren't going as they should. At all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the comments and kudos on the first chapter! They mean so much to me. <3
> 
> Happy New Year!

For a split second, Ignis wasn’t sure if Noctis was worth it, as he stood in the center of baggage claim in a much too small airport in what felt like the middle of nowhere. He was thankful he didn’t have to worry about any luggage past his carry-on, at least. The scramble of people was nearly overwhelming.

There was a small part of him that was thankful for not having to spend ten hours crammed on that plane, but it was only a passing feeling. Where he was now put him worse off.

He surveyed the surroundings of people panicking around him, clamoring for rental cars, shuttles, hotels…he would need to do the same soon.

He took in a long, deep breath and made his first, more important call.

 _“Aren’t you supposed to be on a plane?”_ Gladio’s voice cut through the noise of the room like a beautiful harmony.

“In theory,” Ignis answered, “if there weren’t a snowstorm that made us land in Accordo.”

_“Shit, are you at least in Altissia? Some good clubs there to keep you busy.”_

Ignis resisted the urge to sigh loudly. “For many reasons, that _not_ being one of them, I am unfortunately not in Altissia. Some small town on the other side of the mountains.”

Gladio was quiet, and there was some shuffling. _“So, what are you gonna do?”_

Ignis looked around again. He saw Prompto, also on a call, huddled up in the corner of a wall and newsstand to avoid the throngs of people scrambling about. Ignis turned away to direct his attention to the line of people at the information desk.

“I’m going to find a hotel and work on getting home by other means, I suppose.”

_“That’s vague, but I believe in you, buddy.”_

“You just don’t want to be stuck preparing everything for the banquet.”

_“I really don’t, please don’t make me.”_

Ignis responded by pulling out his small notebook from his breast pocket and flicking it open loudly next to the phone.

_“Oh Gods you’re going to make me do something aren’t you.”_

Ignis’s responded dryly. “Please get a pen and paper ready, we’re already behind schedule.” He knew Gladio was mostly joking - the two of them were dedicated to Noctis, and Gladio and he had become nearly one in the same sometimes in duties. Gladio would fill in as advisor, and Ignis would be there to watch over Noct, whenever the other needed help.

So when Gladio sighed, and Ignis could hear the side of a chair being moved, and a grunt as Gladio sat down, he smiled up at the ceiling.

_“I’m ready.”_

 

* * *

 

Prompto got off the phone with Cor and bounced his leg up and down as he thought about what to do next. He had his room secured, he just needed to get there. Rummaging through his backpack and wallet, he caught on that he was...pretty low on funds. But maybe the taxis would take card. Maybe. He didn’t want to charge everything but the card was intended for emergencies, and this seemed like one, for sure.

He looked up at the crowd of people in various stage of panic. Everyone looked ten kinds of pissed off, which he could certainly understand. He caught sight of Ignis, looking like he was having a tense conversation over the phone and going over something in a small notebook. Because of course he had a small flip notebook.

Prompto bit his lip as he observed Ignis.

He had tried to keep it together during the flight, he really had, but Ignis was a whole new level of proper and he just didn’t know how to work around that. He tried to be polite, smile, and have good conversation about things like….stocks. And the weather. And shit. But Ignis had done literally everything in his power to avoid eye contact, at one point even putting a cooking show on his screen.

And no one willingly watched cooking shows. _No one._

At that point Prompto had taken the hint Ignis wanted nothing to do with him and buried himself into his hoodie. He had focused on reading up strategies on King’s Knight he had downloaded before the flight and music blasting on his headphones.

But when the announcement came over within the first two hours that they would be making an emergency landing, he saw how Ignis’s hands tightened on arms of his seat. He knew Ignis had a ton of shit to do - the little Noct had told him about work stuff, it always sounded so intense. And with the upcoming engagement party...

Prompto had stopped thinking about _that_ though as they started to prepare for landing.

Now, he watched as Ignis pulled the phone away from his ear like it burned, and then looked down at it before hanging up. Ignis looked up at the ceiling.

And didn’t move.

 _Is he broken._ Prompto grew worried as the minutes stretched on. He didn’t know much about his job with Noct, but he knew Ignis was important to Noct’s basic survival based on how often he was bringing food over. So Prompto stood, and wheeled his rickety carry-on along with him towards Ignis, steeling himself with his best smile. His small box of cakes were still safe in their bag, hanging from his arm.

As he approached, Ignis still didn’t move. Prompto cleared his throat once he stood directly in front of him.

Ignis lowered his head to look down at Prompto.

“Hey,” He waved awkwardly. “Shitty time, huh?”

Ignis adjusted his glasses. “To put it mildly.”

“You get a hotel sorted until we can fly out tomorrow?” He shifted his bag on his shoulder. A part of him was being selfish, a little, because maybe if they were staying close enough to each other, he could hitch a ride in Ignis’s cab and cut costs a bit.

“Ah,” Ignis looked away, almost like he was embarrassed. “It seems that all the hotels close by are sold out of rooms. ”

“Oh shit, so fast?” Prompto hadn’t thought about that - but he had also called Cor, who had a place a bit further away from the airport.

“Well, I didn’t call right away, either. My mistake.” Ignis crossed his arms. “I had to first handle some urgent work matters.”

Prompto nodded, as if he understood what any of that might entail. He felt bad that Ignis would probably be stuck in the airport overnight.

Then, he realized-

“Oh! Hey, I’m staying at my basically-my-second-dad’s motel. It’s a bit of a drive, but maybe he has another room. Want me to call and see?”

The range of emotions that vaguely crossed Ignis’s face were conflicted, frustrated, and then resigned.

“Yes, thank you. I suppose it’s better than sleeping here.”

“We can’t have that!” Prompto chirped and lifted his phone, shaking it a little before stepping away to the wall again to make the call. It was true Cor was close, like family. He was technically like a godsfather, but with how often his parents were away for business Cor had stepped in as parent more often than not. But he was getting his room as a solid deal [practically free] and didn’t want to take advantage of his help.

 _“Immortal Motel.”_ A grumpy voice came over the line.

“Hey! Cor, it’s me again.”

_“What’s up kid? Still need that room?”_

“Ya! Yes. But also, I have a...a friend. Who was also on the plane, he needs a room too.”

Prompto turned back to look at Ignis. When they made eye contact he smiled. Ignis just nodded and looked away.

_“Shit, sorry. You got my last room.”_

Prompto worried the inside of his cheek. He didn’t like the idea of leaving Ignis alone in the airport, sleeping on the floor. And Noct would probably be worried sick about him too. If he knew Prompto could have helped at all and didn’t he was sure that put him on the fast track to losing best friend privileges. He couldn’t risk it.

“Okay, no problem! We’ll figure it out. Maybe we can just bunk together.”

There was a slight pause on the line. When Cor spoke again, there was a new gruffness to his voice. _“Ah, I see. Of course that’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”_

“Sweet! Thanks! We’ll see you soon.”

_“See you soon, kid.”_

Prompto hung up and nearly skipped back over to Ignis, who glanced up from his phone.

“A success, it seems?”

Prompto sucked in a deep breath. “Okay so, they didn’t have any other rooms BUT-” he jumped with both arms out before Ignis could say whatever he was about to when he opened his mouth. “-it’s cool! I told Cor we could just split a room, so we can each still have a nice warm bed to sleep on, and even split the cab to the hotel, so it’s all even!”

He finished with his hands up in the air for a double high five.

Ignis stared at his hands.

Prompto fidgeted.

Ignis narrowed his eyes.

Prompto lowered his hands.

“I mean,” Prompto started slowly, “at least you get a bed?”

Ignis grabbed the handle of his luggage, looking as though he had been just giving a death sentence. “Of course. Thank you.”

Prompto tried not to take it too personally. This was a shit situation, and everyone was a grumpy mess. The airlines couldn’t even say with certainty that they would even be able to fly home the next day.

Ignis motioned with his free hand. “Lead the way, Mr. Argentum.”

“Prompto!” He corrected as he saluted and turned on his heel. They just had to make it through one night, then they would be on their way home and out of this awkward. Whatever it was.

 

* * *

 

The man at the front desk of the Immortal Motel had seemed...unnecessarily threatening. Though perhaps if one feels they can name their motel such a way, they also believed to be such and therefore wanted to be intimidating.

But to Prompto he had been warm, and he could see what had been meant when Prompto had explained their relationship. They had hugged tight, shared some photos, and asked how other people were doing.

But towards Ignis, the man named Cor had been terse, and made some strange comments about not hurting Prompto, which had very much confused him. He had no intention of hurting anyone, let alone a friend of Noctis’s.

The narrowed eyes and rough handshake and idle threats all made a lot more sense when Ignis opened the door to their room.

“Oh-” Ignis stopped moving in the entryway, his grip on his carry-on tight.

“Maaaaan I’m so ready to cra-” Prompto pushed past Ignis and into the room. He set the cakes on the TV stand and then finally took notice of what had made Ignis freeze. “-oh no.”

Ignis wondered what he had done to the Gods to deserve the last three days. Ardyn, car accident, no cakes, wrong seat, cancelled flight, no hotel rooms.

One. Bed.

They stood there, side by side, staring into the room. Ignis wondered if Prompto was also hoping somehow a second bed would materialize out of nowhere.

When he looked down at the young man, he could tell he was breathing heavy.

“It’s quite alright,” Ignis tried his best to seem unfettered. “It’s just for one night, we’ll make the best of it.”

“O-okay!” Prompto sounded like he hiccuped, and then quickly moved to the furthest side of the bed. He sat on the very edge, and dropped his luggage to the floor to start going through it.

“Alright if I shower?” He asked as Ignis began to do the same on ‘his’ side of the bed. It was clear Prompto was upset about this arrangement, though he wasn’t sure if it was about sharing a bed, or sharing a bed with _Ignis._ Wasn’t worth prying, though, all things considered.

“Go right ahead.”

Prompto practically ran across the room and shut the door.

Ignis sighed and slipped his shoes off. He unlocked his phone and sent a quick update to Noctis and Gladio that he was staying somewhere for the night, and would have an update the next morning.

He _had_ been rather...put off on the plane with Prompto. He had also assumed that they would just be forced together on that flight and only that flight. He hadn’t considered they would be put into closed, private quarters. Suddenly sharing a bed with someone was certainly different. Prompto had been polite to help him out with a place to stay for the night, but he was also sure it was in Prompto’s nature to be overly helpful.

Prompto also probably had picked up on Ignis’s attempts to just brutally ignore him on the flight. He hadn’t meant to be so rude, but he really had wanted to just have quiet time.

Ignis rubbed at his temples. He should probably try to make amends if they were to be in the same room for the night.

Ignis settled himself up against the headboard to go through some emails, the sound of the shower still running telling him he still had time before Prompto would emerge. He could see some of the progress Gladio had started making while he had been traveling, and sent a few of his own emails. He could still do most things remotely - but if they got held up at all tomorrow things would start to get more difficult.

The shower stopped, and Ignis turned on the TV and found the cooking channel. It helped him collect his thoughts, consider his next move, as he watched the people on the screen chopping and roasting and baking.

Prompto clearly had the best intentions, and wasn’t malicious. He was just a bundle of chaotic, nervous energy. Ignis could handle that. At least he thought he could. The timing of having to be near someone like that was just unfortunate. Usually he was much more composed.

He heard the door open and tried to act as casual as he could as Prompto stepped out and passed in front of Ignis. He had a towel around his neck to catch the water from his hair, and another around his waist.

Ignis blinked, but tried to keep his focus on the show.

“Sorry,” Prompto muttered. “Grabbed my shower stuff but not my pjs.”

“You’re fine,” Ignis said without looking in Prompto’s direction, but out of his peripheral he caught Prompto freeze for a second.

“Ah, I meant. Um.” He turned and caught Prompto’s gaze, who was a bright red on his neck and face, and clutching a bundle of clothes to his chest.

“Yup, nope I got you I know what you meant I’m just -” he motioned with his chin, “- gonna finish up then it’s all yours.”

“Alright.” Ignis

For the first time in his life, Ignis believed he witnessed someone literally scurry away in the form of Prompto getting back into the bathroom. He cleared his throat and let the back of his head hit the solid wood behind him.

Perhaps it would be best if he just turned in for the night right after he showered.

He continued to try distracting himself with the cooking show - it wasn’t his favorite, which was the baking one where everyone was so pleasant to each other, a Tenebraen show, but this one that pitted chefs against a celebrity chef also had its highlights. He set his alarm for an hour before the airline said they would have an update on their flight the next day, and set all his toiletries at the edge of the bed.

Prompto finally came back out, though he had his eyes glued to his phone and seemed to be tapping buttons rapidly. He was surprised he didn’t trip over himself, but Ignis didn’t ask any questions. He collected his stuff and stepped into the bathroom, deciding he was very much looking forward to sleep.

What he didn’t need, was what awaited him in the bathroom.

He was used to cleaning up after Noctis. Years of trying to get him to clean anything and failing left him used to that.

But anyone else, he didn’t have the patience for it.

The bathroom wasn’t the worst, but considering his current state it was. Not ideal. As he closed the door, he noted the amount of toiletries taking up most of the counter space. There was a towel on the ground that was clearly _not_ the one meant to be the one used on the floor. Only one towel remained on the rack, and he could already tell it was not a full sized one.

Chaotic. Disaster.

He took a deep breath and carefully moved some of the items to the side on the counter so he could place his small bag down. He had to just get through one night. Things would be fine.

He tried to ignore every new thing that would set him off. The bar of soap sitting in a pool of water. The nearly empty bottle of body wash without the cap on it. The wadded up washcloth on the side of the tub.

Once dried and in his own sleepwear of long silk pants and button up shirt, he brushed his teeth and collected his things. Stepping out of the bathroom, the TV was still on but all the lights were off. Prompto lay on his side, curled up in a ball facing the wall.

Ignis got himself into bed, mindful of the space between their bodies, and turned off the TV before lying on his side, his back to Prompto.

He lay there, all quiet except for Prompto’s breathing.

And then snoring.

Ignis held back the tired and annoyed groan in the back of his throat. He pulled the cover over his head, though it did little to muffle the sound that was slowly growing louder.

It was just for one night. Tomorrow he would figure out a way to get home as quickly as possible.

 

* * *

 

Prompto usually became aware he was dreaming pretty quickly whenever Noct was involved.

Especially the ones like now, where Prompto and Noct were napping lazily, cuddled up under blankets and listening to the rain.

But Prompto never cared that it was a dream. He held onto those moments, selfishly, because he knew they were never going to be a reality. Even in his dreams he knew _this is special._ He figured there was something probably looked down on about dreaming and whatnot about one’s best friend when the feelings were clearly unreciprocated. But honestly in his dreams he sometimes just wanted to pretend, for a moment.

So dream!Prompto curled up against the warm back of dream!Noct, pressing close from shoulders to hips. He hummed and nestled against Noct’s neck, peppering lazy kisses on soft skin. He slid one leg between Noct’s as his free hand slid down a toned stomach.

Prompto fought every urge to roll his hips.

Noct shifted against him, as if reading Prompto’s mind. Prompto left more open mouthed kisses along exposed flesh - if the dream was going to go that way far be it from him to stop it. This one felt so real - more real than anything yet. He appreciated his brain trying to make up for such a long and tiring day.

So Prompto gave his hips an experimental roll and pressed his nose against the soft hair in front of him. He was half hard, and Noct felt so good. His hand drifted up and down, feeling the rise and fall of Noct’s breathing.

Fuck, this was a good dream.

Noct shifted again.

This time a hand grabbed Prompto’s at the wrist and held on. He smiled and went to turn their hands so their fingers could intertwine.

But the grip on his wrist tightened, holding his hand in place.

“Prompto?” He heard Noct say, and there was something in the voice that was new, a strange tilt to it he had never heard before.

Prompto dismissed it as the weird dream state of things and nuzzled more as he hummed out something that hopefully sounded like a yes.

His hand was lifted up by the wrist.

“Prompto.”

He slowly opened his eyes. The sun was barely up - only a faint hint of light pushed through the curtains of the room. But if the sun was up, then it couldn’t be raining, and...

It registered with Prompto then the hair in front of him wasn’t dark. It was an ashy blond. The body he was pressed up against was longer than Noct, slightly broader shoulders that contrasted a narrow waist.

“Oh shit.”

“Quite.” Ignis’s voice was low and a bit raspy, as if also still half asleep.

Prompto pulled away quickly, and proceeded to fall off the bed with a shout in his attempt to create as much space as possible between himself and Ignis, taking the sheets with him. He tried to get untangled, but then there was Ignis, looking down at him over the edge of the bed as he adjusted his glasses on his face. All Prompto saw was a fuzzy Ignis until he leaned over more.

“Are you okay?” Ignis actually had the ability to speak so normally.

“Yup! I’m--It was--I’m sorry--”

Ignis blinked a few times, then cleared his throat. “It happens to us all, downside to sharing a small bed.”

Prompto got the blanket out from underneath himself and wrapped it around his shoulders to try to hide as much of his body as possible. They stared at each other, and Prompto couldn’t help fidgeting under that scrutinizing gaze. He was pretty sure this wasn’t normal, and Ignis was just trying to help, and that just made this whole situation worse, and was he breathing?

“Prompto -”

He squeaked, and Ignis sighed before moving out of view. “Let’s just get dressed and check in with the airport over breakfast.”

“S-sure! Sounds great! Right behind you--I mean, I’ll meet you in the diner. You go on!” Because somehow his body hadn’t caught on to the fact that he should no longer be excited, and he really needed a moment.

Ignis gave no indication that he heard him, but Prompto heard the sounds of the bathroom light turning on, water running, then the light turning off, shuffling, and then a door closing. When he peeked out over the bed, the hotel room was empty, and he fell forward, face planting onto the mattress.

“Fuck.”

 

* * *

 

Ignis generally moved swiftly, but he had moved a bit quicker than normal to get out of the hotel room and into some brisk fresh air as he made his way to the diner across the street. Snow crunched under his feet, and little flurries floated around him. The cold water he splashed on his face was somehow not enough to cool him off from…

He coughed and blew onto his hands, not wanting to think on what had happened in the room any further. He didn’t want to think about how nice it had felt, for the first time in years, to have someone close like that.

No, not a good train of thought to run down at all.

He sat at the counter, holding the seat beside him for Prompto with his coat. The coffee wasn’t good, but it was caffeine and considering the last 24 hours, Ignis would take what he could get. He sent a flurry of messages to Gladio to ensure tasks were moving forward - today was the day he had several errands that needed to be taken care of for the party, and if he couldn’t catch a flight he needed to be prepared.

While texting Gladio, an alert popped up on his phone that made him nearly smash his coffee cup in his hand.

“Morning!” The voice chirped behind him, and this time his grip did almost take the cup with it.

“Ah, you made it.” He commented as Prompto slid into the seat beside him. He had a slight blush across his cheeks, which could be endearing, if Ignis hadn’t just seen that their little adventure wasn’t getting any better.

“Ya, just had to. Sort through my things. Uh. What’s the word?” Prompto pushed his coffee cup towards the edge so that the waitress could fill it. Ignis was visibly aghast at the amount of shitty creamer and fake sugar Prompto then proceeded to dump into his drink. Bright blue eyes looked up at Ignis expectedly, and he remembered he had asked a question.

“Apparently another storm has already hit the airport. And with the number of flights backed up, everyone on ours is on standby until at least tonight.”

Prompto held his cup in both hands and tapped with his index fingers. He was wearing fingerless gloves, which seemed rather useless in this weather.

“I have an idea.”

Ignis set his cup down with a sigh. “Prompto, listen--”

“Hear me out! I think I can get you home tonight.”

Ignis licked his lips and sat back, crossing his arms. Prompto had managed to snag a place to sleep when things had looked bleak, so perhaps his resourcefulness could still hold out.

“Okay. I’m listening.”

Prompto beamed and set down his cup before swiveling to face Ignis, hand on the back of his chair. “Okay so, we take the train to Altissia, which is what, like, an hour or so tops?”

“In this snowstorm?”

“They keep the tracks clear because it’s also a supply track!”

Ignis was dubious. “But then what? I’m sure the airport there is just as backed up.”

“Then-” Prompto practically wiggled in his seat, hands splaying out in front of him, “we get on a _boat_! Direct route to Galdin Quay, another couple hours, and then a straight shot up to Insomnia. You’d be party planning long before the airlines would even be thinking of calling us. Tada!!”

He rested a hand on Ignis’s shoulder. Ignis looked at the hand, then back to Prompto, before he pulled back with a shy smile.

“You know, it sounds absolutely stupid.” Ignis spoke with a sigh before taking a long drink of coffee. Prompto hung his head, and Ignis felt a tinge of guilt. What else could possibly go wrong at this point that it would hurt to try something to get back faster?

“But I suppose it’s better than sitting around here all day.”

“Yes!” Prompto cheered loudly, and other patrons turned to look at them. He cowered a little and whispered directly to Ignis. “Fuck ya, we’re gonna do this!”

Ignis was going to need a lot more caffeine to get through the day. He took a long sip of his coffee.

“We sure are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iggy: what could possibly go wrong?
> 
>  
> 
> me: :3333


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the ticket counter, Prompto tried to mask the disappointment when the attendant let them know there wouldn’t be two seats together. 
> 
> “It’s quite fine,” Ignis spoke since Prompto had for some reason lost the ability to speak. 
> 
> And he was right, it _was_ fine. They didn’t need to sit together. It wasn’t like they were friends. They hardly knew each other and were clearly just two people working towards the same goal of getting home. 
> 
> It was just...it was nice to have company.
> 
> ***
> 
> Ignis and Prompto try to get to Altissia. Again with that word - try. ^^

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're all so amazing and sweet tysm

Prompto could do this - he could prove to Ignis he could help them, and he wasn’t a _complete_ disaster. His plan was solid and foolproof, it had to be. Anything was better than just waiting around in an airport with the chance they wouldn’t even fly out that night.

_Anything._

_Right?_

That’s what he kept repeating to himself as he and Ignis huddled in the back of a rickety old truck on their way to the train station the next town over. The driver worked for Cor, but it was clear Ignis didn’t trust him at all. Which, fair, he did look a bit...rough around the edges. But it was a short drive, less than an hour, to the train station, and so they would be fine. Totally. And Cor had insisted they save the money by not calling a cab, and even though Ignis worked for Noct it wasn’t like Prompto could use him the whole trip for his money. While he couldn’t pay for everything, he could at least help find some good deals to make the burden lighter.

Prompto tried not to think about the way Cor had glared at Ignis, or the way he had hugged Prompto and whispered _‘let me know if he hurts you and I’ll come to Insomnia immediately.’_

Prompto had already spent the entire morning trying to not to think about waking up cuddling Ignis. Sitting at breakfast he had been way way way too aware of how close they were, and tried to always make sure not to touch and not to get too close. Especially after the look he got for touching his shoulder.

Cor’s comment didn’t help the weird nerves in his chest at all.

So Prompto had merely cleared his throat and waved goodbye before hopping in the back of the truck. He didn’t think it would help to sit there and argue about his and Ignis’s not-relationship and not-even-a-friendship considering they had a train to catch. And things were already tense…

Because oh, ya, the truck had no room for actual people in the front. Because all but the driver seat was missing. Prompto had been surprised Ignis had even agreed to this setup, if he were being honest.

But he had climbed into the truck bed, lips pulled into a line, sat down carefully, and closed his eyes while muttering _‘wake me when we get there, if we don’t die first._ ’

It was a fair request, given the circumstances.

Now well on their way, Prompto’s teeth chattered and his fingertips had turned into icicles, but he refused to not hold on to the precious box of cakes for fear they would go flying with the wind.

At first there was a small amount of space between he and Ignis, but on a bump he managed to squirm just a tad closer, so their shoulders touched. He needed _some_ sort of extra warmth. Anything would do at this point. He was too focused on the need for heat to really worry about what Ignis could interpret the movement as.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ignis open his eyes just barely to squint at him, but Prompto pretended to fumble with the cakes instead. He had to make sure they were still in one piece, ya, that was it. He tapped his fingers on the box to try to stimulate movement and maybe keep them from falling off.

“Don’t you have better ones?” Ignis asked. More like shouted, because it was loud and all with the sound of the road and the wind.

“Uh, it hadn’t really been snowing yet, and I wasn’t planning on being outside or anything.”

All he could hear after that was the wind around them, while Ignis shuffled and opened his briefcase beside him. A pair of dark brown leather gloves were set on Prompto’s knee. They looked nicer than any article of clothing he owned.

Prompto snapped his head to look at Ignis, who, while still holding the gloves, studied the horizon zooming past them.

“Thanks,” Prompto muttered, and quickly slid them over his gloved hands. They were a bit large, but they were so, so warm. He sighed with relief as sensation slowly worked its way back into his fingertips. He leaned back against the truck and shimmied down a bit further to help block the wind, cakes balanced on his stomach.

Ignis didn’t respond, and so Prompto took the cue and just watched the scenery change from the wild snow-covered fields with the mountains in the distance. He wished he could take a few photos, but either the cakes or his phone would probably suffer.

When they arrived in the next small town over where the train station was, he nudged Ignis and hopped out of the truck. He stretched and grabbed his luggage and careened around to the driver while Ignis climbed out.

“Axis, right?” Prompto reached out and shook hands as he nodded. The guy looked dour, but he would be too if he had to just drive a couple of strangers in this weather. “Thanks again for the lift.”

Axis shrugged. Ignis walked up, and Ignis studied them both before also reaching his hand out.

“Much appreciated.”

“Good luck to you both,” Axis said as a they shook hands, “trying to get across the water’s gonna be tough.”

Prompto let out a laugh that was probably a bit too loud, earning furrowed eyebrows from Axis. “We’ll be fine! Thanks bye!”

He grabbed Ignis by the arm to pull him away before Axis could potentially damage any trust he had gained. Sure, the boat was risky - going over the water when there was a storm was not the best idea, but Prompto figured they could take the risk. And they had to move fast - the train was due to arrive in 20 minutes, and they still needed to buy seats.

Ignis pulled away while keeping pace with him. “Everything alright, Prompto?”

“Yup! Just wanna get on the train and out of the cold.”

“Couldn’t agree more.”

At the ticket counter, Prompto tried to mask the disappointment when the attendant let them know there wouldn’t be two seats together.

“It’s quite fine,” Ignis spoke since Prompto had for some reason lost the ability to speak.

And he was right, it _was_ fine. They didn’t need to sit together. It wasn’t like they were friends. They hardly knew each other and were clearly just two people working towards the same goal of getting home.

It was just...it was nice to have company. Prompto really hated traveling, and traveling alone, and going through all this with Ignis at least made it more bearable. He had made long trips many times over the years, but it was always hard to do alone, for many reasons.

But he had done it before, and so he could do it again.

“See you in Altissia!” Prompto shouted as he ran to his designated car. It was a hopeful goodbye, but he knew deep down there was a high risk that once in Altissia Ignis would continue on without his help.

Ignis gave a short wave as he walked in the opposite direction. Prompto let out a sigh.

Once seated, Prompto took the first set of gloves off and pulled out his phone. He had a slew of texts from Noct that he hadn’t gotten to respond to yet, starting with-

Noct: _dude, are you alive???? You cant just leave me hanging wth its been hours. HO U RS_

Oh shit, Prom had last texted him asking him to guess what had happened. But that had been at the diner. He didn’t bother scrolling back up to see what Noct had been shouting about, he would look later.

Prompto: _I ran into Iggy yesterday! We are traveling pals now, trying to get back over there because f this storm_

Noct: _wtf thats random. Dont let him bully you into eating vegetables or drinking water._

Prom: _but i like both!_

Noct: _traitor_

Prompto couldn’t help a smile. The train lurched forward, and in between texts Prompto tried to take some cool videos of the scene moving past him. The snow drifts were almost as tall as the train in some parts, but every so often he could get a shot of the mountains in the distance. The person next to him kept to himself and didn’t seem bothered when Prompto would lean over just enough to get a picture.

After just over half an hour, the train stuttered. The box of cakes slid off Prompto’s lap, and he shouted out as he barely caught it with his free hand. The train moved forward, then stopped again, and then there was a loud sound somewhere behind them before it only slowly moved.

And then the train completely stopped.

Prompto was pretty sure his heart did, too.

“Fuck!”

 

* * *

 

Ignis stepped down from the train trying to will every Astral in existence to either carry him away to Insomnia or just smite him on the spot. Something, anything to make this blasted situation an ounce better.

His feet hit snow, because of course the train stopped in between stops, and in the middle of nowhere. His frustrated breath clouded in front of his face.

The attendants directed everyone to the nearby road, where according to them buses would be arriving ‘soon’ to drive them the rest of the way. But Ignis knew the roads would be less than ideal, and so they were looking at another 2 hours added on their commute, minimum.

He sent another flurry of texts to Gladio before walking towards the road - Ignis could manage some things while on the bus, but anything requiring phone calls Gladio would have to do. He wouldn’t trust the privacy on a most likely cramped bus space. The noise as well would certainly make it difficult to hear anything.

He had to put his phone away to lift his luggage, as the snow made it quite difficult to pull. He looked around at all the passengers doing the same. This was turning into quite a mess. Looking behind, he saw in the distance a bright shot of blond hair against the snowy background.

Prompto was still trying to drag his luggage, the cakes clutched in his other hand.

_For astral’s sake._

Ignis went against the stream of people towards Prompto, who had already nearly slipped at least four times since he started in his direction. The boy was going to hurt himself and at least two people around him soon.

He picked up the pace and got to Prompto, immediately grabbing his luggage without a word.

“Hey! I got it!” Prompto flustered, but Ignis just lifted it up by the handle and ignored him.

“This is faster, come on.”

He walked then, not looking to see if Prompto was following. They finally made it to the road, though nearly last. Two buses had already been loaded up and driven off. The third would be there any minute, according to the workers.

Prompto worried his bottom lip, watching the road like everyone else. “I’m sorry.”

The apology shook him from staring at Prompto’s mouth, and also made him realize he was even doing such a thing. Thankfully he had kept his gaze at the road and not turned to Ignis when he spoke.

He collected himself before the silence could be misinterpreted. “Why, did you have something to do with the train breaking down?”

Prompto huffed and straightened his shoulders, still not looking at Ignis. “Of course not!”

“Then no need to apologize.”

“This was my idea though.”

“And there is still a chance it will work, right?” Ignis did have his doubts, but there was no point in voicing them now, when they were already stranded. He had already started to work out a backup plan though for once they were in Altissia. Perhaps the airport would be open by then, since they were being delayed.

Prompto visibly took in a deep breath. “Ya...”

A bus came over the horizon, and they both let out sighs of relief. With minimal shuffling considering how clearly annoyed and upset everyone was at this point, they managed to get seats on the bus. Ignis put their cases in the bin above their seats as Prompto snagged the window. He sat beside him and noted Prompto taking some pictures.

“Documenting our terrible adventures?” He tried to offer a small smile when Prompto turned and looked horrified at being caught.

“I mean, uh, memories are memories, right? Here!” He grabbed Ignis by the shoulder. Ignis leaned closer and Prompto held up his phone.

“Say chocobo!” Prompto sang, but Ignis did no such thing. He was pretty sure he looked perturbed more than anything else, but it couldn’t be helped.

Prompto didn’t comment if he looked so though, just wiggled - literally wiggled - in his seat. “Gonna send this to Noct! He couldn’t believe we ran into each other.”

Ignis swallowed as he watched Prompto’s fingers fly across his phone. He hadn’t reached out to Noctis since the night before, but assumed Gladio would relay their progress. He hadn’t wanted to worry him unnecessarily.

There was a bubble of guilt, deep in his gut, at not being there already back home to help make sure such an important moment was perfect. Noctis would of course claim he didn’t care about all this, but Ignis _did_ . On his behalf.

He curled his hands into fists just a little and decided to distract himself with working on emails. Though it didn’t last long.

“Oh and uh, I didn’t tell Noct.”

Ignis raised an eyebrow and glanced up. Prompto was still focused on his phone.

“Didn’t tell him what?”

“About uh. You know.” He made a vague hand gesture. “This morning.”

Ignis cleared his throat and crossed his legs. “Well there’s nothing to tell right?”

“R-right.”

His cheeks were a bit red, and Ignis shifted a little in his seat. He would prefer to not talk about it, because it didn’t matter, and it clearly upset Prompto and embarrassed him. So, he opted not to say anything further on the matter and focused on his emails.

The bus ride was certainly bumpy, but mostly quiet, to his surprise. Everyone was probably just as exhausted as they were. Prompto kept to himself, mostly taking pictures and texting Noctis, or playing some game...

Ignis peered over at his screen when it flashed again. “Hm, I’ve seen that before.”

Prompto nearly jumped out of his seat but recovered quickly, looking from his phone to Ignis. “What, King’s Knight? Ya probably, Noct and I play it all the time.”

“Ah, yes.” The name was familiar, but he hardly paid attention to the actual game. “It looks complicated.”

“Naw, look, it’s pretty simple. You just have to make it to the next level and avoid these guys, and if you have a full group it’s even easier!”

Prompto continued to show him the game and wax poetic about the story and his favorite character. The tension from moments before melted away from Prompto as he spoke excitedly, and he even felt somehow more at ease.

Ignis followed along, and eventually looked at his own phone. They had at least another hour, he had gone through all the emails he could and given his task list to Gladio. Seemed like it could be harmless to try some game to pass the time.

“Can I download it?”

Prompto’s eyes lit up and he smiled wider than he had all day. “The question is, why _haven’t_ you?”

Ignis couldn’t help a small laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ignis has a soft spot - he just doesn't know it yet.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He spun around to where Ignis stood, clearly trying to head towards the ticket counter. 
> 
> “Ah! Sorry. I just. Haven’t been here since I was a kid.” 
> 
> Ignis looked around and then nodded. “It’s quite the sight, isn’t it?” 
> 
> Prompto grinned. He lifted his phone and snapped a picture of Ignis, standing in the center of it all like he belonged there. 
> 
> “Ya, totally.” 
> 
>  
> 
> ***
> 
> The gods have a sense of humor. It sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delay! work is kicking my ass, please accept this humble offering.

The ride to Altissia flew by - Prompto got Ignis set up in the same raid group as he and Noct in King’s Knight, and they even managed to get Gladio in on the game. Ignis had only grumbled a little that Gladio was supposed to be tanking some engagement party stuff for him.

Once out of the tutorial, Ignis had been a natural at the game. Spending the ride playing a game was easier, Prompto thought, than trying to have a conversation the whole time. He was still slightly convinced that Ignis hated him, or at least was a little angry at him. Or the situation. Or everything. It was hard to tell.

So he gladly gave up stilted awkward conversation for video games. It was how he got through life.

By the time the bus pulled to an abrupt stop at the station in Altissia, Prompto was grinning wide and, maybe Ignis was too. At least a little.

“Okay so,” Prompto said out loud mostly for Ignis, but maybe a little for himself as well, “next we get on a boat! Should be easy, I bet not a lot of people are getting on it.”

“What, for fear of their lives?” Ignis said matter of factly with a hint of _am I going to have to destroy you_ in his voice.

“No! No of course not just. The weather is not ideal for you know. Water.”

Ignis hummed as they were jostled around by the crowd of people collecting their luggage from under the bus. Since they had their already in hand, they moved out of the chaos quickly, and Prompto found himself frozen staring at the city.

Altissia was an beautiful, bustling city, and where travel of all kinds converged. Planes, trains, you name it, all ended up there. And it was gorgeous, definitely taking up its mantle as one of the premiere connections and destinations.

He itched to have his camera. He instead awkwardly pulled his phone out of his pocket and began snapping pics with one hand. It was cold, but he kept Ignis’s gloves put away so he could use the phone. The bag of cakes hung off his wrist, still somehow intact.

The city was bright and white and dazzling, the water surrounding them covered with a thin layer of ice that added an almost haunting sense to everything. He just wished the sky was clear and blue, to show the contrast of the buildings even more.

“Prompto?”

He spun around to where Ignis stood, clearly trying to head towards the ticket counter.

“Ah! Sorry. I just. Haven’t been here since I was a kid.”

Ignis looked around and then nodded. “It’s quite the sight, isn’t it?”

Prompto grinned. He lifted his phone and snapped a picture of Ignis, standing in the center of it all like he belonged there. 

“Ya, totally.”

He raised an eyebrow. Prompto panicked.

“Oh, is that ok? I figured I could uh. Send it to Noct? Prove to him you’re alive and all.”

Ignis’s face softened. “I’m sure he’s more worried about you than me.”

Prompto pocketed his phone and waved his hand. “Naw. You’re the one who keeps him from being a total disaster. Pretty sure we know who he would save first.”

“You think too little of yourself.” Ignis crossed his arms as Prompto walked up next to him.

Prompto cleared his throat and put on his best smile. “I just like to be a realist. Come on, we have to get you home!”

He moved on before Ignis could say anything further. He needed to get them on a _boat._ That was more important than who Noct would save first. He didn’t really want to think about that anyways.

It was almost noon already - time was slipping by way too fast, and Prompto knew Ignis was trying to maintain his composure but with how many times he looked at his phone for the time, or was checking messages, he knew it was getting harder for him to stay calm.

He frantically looked over all the signs until finding one pointing them towards the harbor. The place was an absolute maze, and that was about all he recalled from his brief time in the city years ago.

“This way,” Ignis spoke up, pointing to the left.

Prompto found it easy to fall into step behind him.

 

* * *

 

“Listen! It’s - we’re still getting across to the right continent, right?!” Prompto’s voice rose an octave with each syllable as he waved the tickets in the air in front between the two of them.

Ignis meanwhile, tried not to stare daggers through him, he really did. But there was a small part of him wondering what would have happened had he just taken his chances and stayed in the airport and waited for a flight, instead of going on this journey across Eos.

If he were being honest, that part wasn’t so small anymore.

“We are going to _pass_ Galdin Quay. To get to Caem.”

Prompto’s shoulders slouched down and he looked up at the sky, worrying his lips. Ignis could relate, very much, but also they needed to get home. Gladio’s texts were becoming more worried and panicked as Ignis had to offload more work onto him, and the people coordinating the event were also increasing their anxious texts to him. While they had been playing that game on the bus, his phone had been blowing up, but he had tried to force himself a small moment of distraction.

Clearly a mistake.

Things were looking rather dire. There was almost something poetic about the chance he would miss the engagement party he was supposed to be helping plan, for the person he secretly loved.

Prompto let out a long huff of air but didn’t look Ignis in the eyes. “It’s okay, we’ll catch a ride there, they should have cars we can rent, or maybe there’s a train nearby isn’t that faster? We can still--”

“How about some food?” Ignis cut in. He had to offer a distraction, before Prompto broke down in the middle of the depot and Ignis threw all his belongings against a wall. That wouldn’t help anyone.

Prompto only offered a small nod. His eyes were watering and red, and Ignis tried to calm himself down before he made things worse. He hadn’t meant to upset Prompto, but this situation was. Not ideal. And his patience had been depleted roughly 24 hours ago.

He was going to hurt Prompto more with sharp words, soon, he knew it.

He led them to a deli just tucked away outside the station where they could eat and stay warm. Their boat would leave in an hour, which should give them time to eat.

And for Ignis to finally rip off the band-aid. He couldn’t focus on Prompto, getting home, and taking care of all his tasks, and not hurting his feelings.

It was clear what he needed to do.

Prompto stayed quiet as they sat in a booth opposite each other and looked at the menus. It was mostly fast food, but at this point Ignis would eat potentially anything that seemed mostly edible. They ordered their food and stayed focused on their phones. The energy between them was terse, nothing like their time on the bus. The guilt of it was eating at Ignis.

He flipped his phone over to ignore the constant messages for a brief respite, and then looked up to Prompto.

“So, Prompto.”

Wide blue eyes caught his as Prompto took a mouthful of fries, an immediate look of fear across his face. Ignis rubbed his thumb and forefinger together before folding his hands together.

“I think you have proven a great help to get us this far, and I am in debt to your dedication to getting to Noctis. But, I think now-”

“Yooo it’s okay,” Prompto waved his hands in front of him and took a long sip of his water. “ It’s cool, I get it, no reason to make it weird. I’ll leave you alone.”

“Ah, I mean, that’s not quite--”

“It’s fine, Iggy! I mean- Ignis. It’s fine. We both got things to do, lots to get ready for.” Prompto inhaled the rest of his fries, downed his water, and pulled out his wallet.

“Please, I can cover this.”

“Nope nope, I can get mine. Least I can do.” He tapped his finger on the bills he had stacked on the table. There was a smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes, and something in Ignis’s chest tightened.

“Prompto.” He reached across the table for his arm, but Prompto was quick and out of his seat before he could make contact. He grabbed his cakes, his ridiculously broken by this point carry-on, and bowed his head to Ignis.

“Good luck! See you at the engagement party!”

And with that, he turned and walked away, out of the deli.

Ignis turned in the booth and watched him go. Prompto didn’t look behind him as he left and headed towards the docks.

Ignis flexed his hands and returned to his burger, finding he was much less hungry.

Curious, that he had intended to do just this and yet he felt.

Guilty?

Strange.

Leaving his food unfinished, he put down cash for his own meal and collected his things to make his way to the boat. They had already started boarding, but Prompto was nowhere to be seen, which was odd, since there weren’t so many people boarding, but he held back from trying to look for him. Ignis had clearly done enough damage.

The clouds above them were getting darker, and Ignis prayed to the gods to just get him across the blasted water.

It was a ferry, so it was large enough to also carry cars, and had no seat assignments, so he was free to roam around. The entire ride would be about two hours, which gave him time to get caught up on work.

Glancing at his phone, it was almost one . He could still make it back by evening, if everything else went smoothly on the other side. Perhaps on his own he could...control the chaos a bit better.

He got himself situated at a bench in the corner inside, so he could get his headset on and call Gladio without disturbing too many people. Gladio had been sending texts like he was about to have a full blown aneurysm over things like tablecloths and silverware.

While he worked on trying to get the party under order, the boat ride was surprisingly calm despite the storm brewing. There was just some choppiness that made the boat rock more than it might normally. Ignis hoped Prompto didn’t get seasick easy - he could see several people reaching their limit and seeking assistance, hurrying to the bathroom or even the side of the boat.

He cleared his throat and looked down at his phone when it buzzed. The game he had downloaded had sent a notification - his group was about to do a raid, and would he like to join?

His finger hovered over the _join_ option for a brief moment before he shook his head and declined it.

Instead he went through a few more emails, and then the two hours had passed and they were arriving Caem. Except, when he looked at his phone, he realized it had taken three hours instead of two, thanks to the storm. Ignis talked himself through it though, exiting off the boat without knocking over children despite his irritation at their slowness and distracted easily ways.

For the first time since the diner, he could see Prompto ahead of him. His hoodie was pulled up around his head and he looked so...defeated. He was pretty sure one wheel was completely gone from his luggage now as he dragged it behind him.

He watched as Prompto went in the direction of the public transportation station.

But Ignis required more control over his destiny at this point. He headed in the opposite direction, towards the rental cars.

He sent a quick text to Noctis. He hadn’t said much since the day before, but he figured he finally had a good update.

_Ignis: Landed in Caem. I should be there by nightfall._

_Noctis: Sweet! Can’t wait to see you and Prom finally._

Ignis squeezed his phone before shoving it into his pocket.

 

* * *

 

Prompto hadn’t really had any idea of his plans once landing in Caem, not once he was alone. He spent the whole boat ride trying one, not to vomit, and two, hide from Ignis. He had ended up hiding in a corner outside bracing against the cold, because at least out there no one was around.

He hadn’t even put on the gloves from Ignis despite the cold.

He should have seen this coming, really. He had fucked up a lot in his overzealous attempt at trying to fix everything. Story of his life, really. It made sense Ignis would want to drop him.

He spent the whole time playing King’s Knight, thankful at least for wifi on the boat.

Getting off the boat in Caem, he kept his headphones on and hoodie up to distract himself from trying to find Ignis. His carry-on was so fucking busted it was annoying, but he pushed on towards where he thought there might be buses. He was low on funds, so if he could find the cheapest option to get home, that would be great thanks.

However, the bus schedule was a _disaster_. Meaning non-existent. Apparently there was a strike going on, and no buses were running.

Of course.

He counted the money he had left - as long as he didn’t have to pay for anything else he could probably rent a car and just drive until he got into Insomnia. If he needed to sleep, he could just catch a break at a rest stop along the way.

He cradled the cakes against his chest as he looked back towards the rental car building. Ignis probably already had his car and was on his way back home, safe and without any trouble now.

He made his way over, shoving down any hopes of running into Ignis deep into his stomach. Inside it was mostly quiet, and he worried that perhaps something had happened that there were no more cars, or maybe there was another strike that affected rental cars. Or, the gods just hated him.

But at the counter, he spoke with a nice woman who offered him their last car in the lot, and he thought maybe things were going to be...okay. Okay enough. It took basically all his money aside from a bit for one meal that night, but he would do it, he would get home.

Prompto got settled in his car, cakes placed on the floor of the passenger seat so that if he had to brake suddenly they wouldn’t go flying. He could hook up his phone to charge _and_ play music, so things were really looking up. Finally.

He pulled out of the spot in the rental car lot, and made his way around, following signs to exit the area. He had to pass by the terminal exit and taxi cab line, and at a glance he caught there was some sort of commotion happening - people were gathered up and actually filming something, he couldn’t see what. Prompto slowed just before he was going to pass, because he thought he recognized the tall man standing on the other side of the crowd, but no way -

A body flew out in front of his car.

Prompto slammed on the brakes with a scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (ﾟ▽ﾟ)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He caught how Prompto’s eyes darted away from his phone at Ignis emerging. He looked shyly away as he approached, as if Ignis hadn’t just been watching him smoke from the car. 
> 
> He lifted up his hand, and Prompto’s eyebrows lifted up and nearly disappeared behind his messy blond bangs and eyes widened. 
> 
> “You?” He said with a laugh as he handed Ignis a cigarette. 
> 
> He just shrugged, and didn’t think too much about how close he got to Prompto as he held the lighter up close and lit it.
> 
> “Been years. I think circumstances allow for it.” He took a long inhale and let out a shaky breath. He focused on the light above them, on the moths circling around it. 
> 
> “Ya,” was all Prompto said, and he stayed there on his phone while Ignis finished his cigarette. 
> 
> ***
> 
> On the road. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again! please mind the anxiety and self doubt. and the garulas. ;]

Ignis fell back against the seat feeling like he weighed several tons, his arms heavy as they rested in his lap. The fall hadn’t been _so_ bad, actually. Somehow Prompto had barely avoided hitting him with the car.

In the briefest of moments he wondered if it would have been easier if he had. Just a little.

Outside the car there was still a commotion of people on the curb shouting and point at him as Prompto ran around the front and got into the driver’s seat with a gasp of relief.

Ignis didn’t turn to Prompto to acknowledge him. He would be hesitant to admit it out loud, but he was of course embarrassed. So instead, he ignored the stare he could feel on the side of his face and closed his eyes. He kept his head pressed against the cool window and took in steadying breaths as Prompto started driving away from the terminal.

But he knew the silence wouldn’t last for the entire ride. He wouldn’t be so lucky.

“So...uh, you okay?” Prompto’s voice shook a little, and was quiet, like he thought maybe Ignis was asleep.

He really wished he was.

“I’m fine.” He risked a glance at Prompto. He was worrying his bottom lip while staring at the road ahead, hands fixed firmly on the wheel at 10 and 2. It was strangely proper of him and seemed out of sorts.

Prompto kept his eyes focused ahead, but it was clear he was distracted as his fingers drummed on the wheel. “I can probably get us home late tonight. My plan had been to just drive until I got there, as few stops as possible.”

“Shall I drive some?”

Prompto shook his head, and finally cast Ignis a small look with a smile. “I’m good. Though we’ll need to stop in at least one rest area for a break.”

Ignis didn’t argue. He nodded and settled once more against the door, looking out ahead as well. The sun had started to set since it was winter, even though it really wasn’t that late.

“You know, if you wanna talk about it--”

“I’m fine.” He repeated, and knew he sounded harsh, but he was tired. The whole fiasco, starting in Niflheim, had just worn him down more than even his worst week at work ever had.

Add to that his embarrassment at his behavior. Somehow the idea of Prompto knowing what had happened gripped at him tight.

By the time Prompto had rolled by - and nearly struck him down - things had escalated to such a point Ignis wasn’t even sure who was fighting and who was trying to keep him _from_ fighting. But it had been all his fault, and he couldn’t blame the people for going after him.

He had just wanted a rental car. And he had received keys for one. And then it wasn’t in the parking lot. And he had gone back, and was informed there were none left.

And he had proceeded to lose his temper on the poor woman working behind the desk. Loudly. So loudly people had tried to pull him away from the desk, before he started swinging, and then he was being dragged outside.

He really wasn't sure what had gotten into him except pure exhaustion and anger.

So he would rather no one else ever hear of this. Ever. He was lucky he got away without any charges pressed.

“Hey, I’m gonna pull over for a stop, you don’t have to get out though.”

“Sure.”

The car pulled into the rest stop. Ignis cracked his eyes open to see Prompto hop out into the cold. He ran into the restrooms, and then once out walked towards an area under a light with an ashtray set up.

Ignis let out a _huh_ seeing Prompto light up a cigarette. He wouldn’t have guessed he smoked. Prompto was also on his phone, letting out puffs of smoke and seeming to scroll through something. Ignis couldn’t help smiling at seeing he was at least still wearing the gloves he had loaned him.

Ignis didn’t even have the desire to check his own phone. So he just sat there, watching Prompto, not entirely sure why. A part of him still wondered that he didn’t register him ever being in the apartment with Noctis - he had an energy about him that he was sure he would have sensed instantly.

Prompto was about halfway through his smoke when Ignis moved, for reasons he couldn’t entirely explain, out of the car. He first hit the restroom himself, and then instead of going back to the car headed towards Prompto.

He caught how Prompto’s eyes darted away from his phone at Ignis emerging. He looked shyly away as he approached, as if Ignis hadn’t just been watching him smoke from the car.

He lifted up his hand, and Prompto’s eyebrows lifted up and nearly disappeared behind his messy blond bangs and eyes widened.

“You?” He said with a laugh as he handed Ignis a cigarette.

He just shrugged, and didn’t think too much about how close he got to Prompto as he held the lighter up close and lit it.

“Been years. I think circumstances allow for it.” He took a long inhale and let out a shaky breath. He focused on the light above them, on the moths circling around it.

“Ya,” was all Prompto said, and he stayed there on his phone while Ignis finished his cigarette.

When he deposited the last bit into the bin, Prompto just smiled softly and walked back to the car. Ignis followed, and was reminded quickly how much he wanted to just sit.

He wondered if this was how Noctis felt every morning. Things made more sense, if that were the case.

Prompto started the car without a word. Ignis settled back against the door, and Prompto turned on the radio, though kept the volume reasonable.

Ignis felt the pull of sleep finally come for him.

 

* * *

 

Prompto opened a can of an energy drink he had snagged at the rental car terminal with one hand and took a big sip. The sun just finished setting, the sky mostly a dark blue aside for the last bit of light ahead on the horizon. He tried to focus on that - on the road, on the music. Not on Noct, not on Ignis…

He spared Ignis a glance. He had ended up curled up in his seat with his jacket draped over him, and it was almost... _cute_ to see him looking so vulnerable and not so put together. But Prompto also knew that this trip had been weighing on him, maybe harder than it had been on himself. Whatever happened at the car place, it wasn’t the Ignis he knew.

Well, knew through Noct. But still.

His fingers itched on the steering wheel. He shouldn’t have smoked at the rest area but his nerves were through the roof. Driving himself home was one thing - if something went wrong that was on him and it was his bad, but now he had Ignis to get home, too, and his anxiety about making it on time seemed to be times ten what Prompto’s was. Which was a feat. So now he really had to get them both home in time, and not fuck this up.

Again.

There was no one else on the road - it was a small two way lane where they were driving up from, far outside the bustling streets of Insomnia. He pulled up his legs so his knees cradled the wheel as he got out a cig and lit it, rolling down the window to blow the smoke out. Hopefully Iggy wouldn’t be woken by the smell or the cold.

But the first inhale was such a relief. And though he was supposed to be quitting, he had just a few left in his last pack. And hey, if even Ignis broke and smoked every now and then, clearly he wasn’t that terrible.

He started to relax a little more, tapping his hands to the beat of the music playing softly. He was supposed to be quitting for Noct, as a wedding gift he had claimed, so Prompto wouldn’t have to buy him anything. Which was cheesy, sure, but Prompto couldn’t say no. That was the problem, wasn’t it? That Noct was his center of gravity, even though he wasn’t…

Prompto shook his head and inhaled a final long drag. He flicked the cig out the window and rolled it back up. It wouldn’t do him any good to dwell on Noctis.

He looked at Ignis again. He thought about that moment back in the hotel that morning, what seemed like days ago now, curled up against him as he woke up.

Fuck, more things he should _not_ be thinking about.

Prompto was really fucking lonely, clearly. Ignis was like, the farthest thing from a person who would ever even entertain the idea of looking in Prompto’s direction outside of the forced interaction they had been put into. He didn’t even remember that they had both been in Noct’s apartment.

He sighed and forced himself to look the road --

“Shit!”

A herd of garula were galloping in front of the car and he was about two seconds from colliding with them. He slammed on the breaks and took the wheel as far to the left as he could go, sending the car spiraling across the road. The animals roared and ran off, Prompto was screaming, and Ignis was upright and holding onto the roof for dear life.

The car finished several rotations and ended up facing the wrong way on the road. But they didn’t hit the garulas. Prompto had fucking saved them.

“Shit shit shit, Ignis you good?” He breathed out and looked over. Ignis’s eyes were wide and he looked about like a cat who had been spooked and whose fur was on end.

Ignis lowered his hands, looking around. “That was...you handled that well.”

Prompto somehow managed a laugh. He looked at the rearview mirror -

“Shit the trunk popped open. Should check on our stuff.”

They both groaned and climbed out, and sure enough once at their trunk they found it empty. And along the street they could see it thanks to a nearby streetlight.

“At least there’s no traffic.” Ignis muttered. They both ran out and collected their respective bags, and Prompto was so glad that the cakes were on the floor in the backseat.

Ignis stopped, watching the animals as they finished crossing. “Must be nice.”

“Hm?” Prompto rolled up next to him, mindful of the space between them.

“The garula, they just. Cross the street. Like nothing would hurt them.”

“I mean, to be fair, I would have taken them down with me.” Prompto tried to laugh a little. But the reality was garula were fucking tanks and they were really...really lucky.

There was a sound behind them, like a _whoosh._ They both turned around at the same time.

“Uh,” Prompto lost all ability to speak, because-

“Why is the car on fire?”

“Fuck!” Once again they both ran, now towards the car. The whole backseat was engulfed in flames. “Snow! Throw snow!”

They clamored along the sludge on the side of the road and began chucking the snow into the car. The window on one side shattered from the heat and Prompto screamed. He was soaked after the third armful of snow, but they had to do this. They were stuck in the middle of nowhere and he just wanted to be home.

After who knew how long, the fire was reduced just smoldering. But the back of the car was wrecked. They both collapsed to the ground, sitting on the road next to the car.

“Do you..” Prompto let out a shaky sigh, “think insurance covers this? Spontaneous combustion?”

Ignis pushed back his glasses on his face, a smudge of dirt spreading on his nose. His hair had lost any semblance of stature and was pressed against his head. He stood and peered inside the hollowed out back of the car. “It looks like something was in the backseat, there’s a very prominent hole.”

All the blood in Prompto froze. He stared part Ignis, his brain working backwards to…

The cigarette, him flicking it out the window of a moving car. Wind. pushing it. He could ampost visualize it, see it getting whipped back into the car, the bit of heat at the end wedged against the cheap cloth of the seat.

And then he remembered something else, something that made his heart shatter before he even dared look.

“The cakes!” His voice cracked and he felt stupid but also he didn’t care. Prompto crawled past Ignis, not caring about the oof he made as he did when he threw the door open.

He let out a strangled cry.

The box of cakes was gone - mostly. It was charred black, remnants of two sides and a little of the actual cake stuck to the bottom.

Prompto sat back. Everything from the last two days just caught up to him. His chest _ached_ , and his eyes watered quickly, his throat constricting.

“Prompto--”

“I can’t,” he hiccuped and the tears, fuck there were tears and he didn’t want there to be but he was helpless to stop them at this point.

“I can’t even do...one thing,” he spoke between breaths as he leaned against the car. Ignis stood over him, hands wavering as if he wasn’t sure what to do. That was fine, Prompto didn’t know what to do, either.

“I can’t even bring fucking cakes to my best friend. I’m a fucking mess.” He curled up his legs and pressed his face against his knees. He heard the crunching of shoes on the ground but didn’t look up. All this time he had just been thinking of Noct, of getting those cakes to him, of his face when he would see them, and how it would feel to make him happy, and--

“Prompto, breathe.” There were hands on his knees.

He took a breath.

“Good. Take another.”

He took another, shaking a little. The hands on his knees tightened gently.

“Let’s get to the nearest hotel. I’ll drive. Another breath, please.”

Prompto listened, and then took an extra one for good measure. But he was still crying, still angry, still furious at himself.

“I’m sure Noct will understand,” Ignis said softly, “I was supposed to bring him cakes as well, you know.”

At that, Prompto looked up. He remembered, then, Ignis trying to buy the cakes off him in the airport.

_Oh._

He sniffled and remembered at least to use his sleeve instead of his hands so he didn’t ruin Iggy’s gloves.

“Guess we both messed up huh?” He blinked.

Ignis released his knees and stood up. “Noctis would never hold something like that against us, you know that right?”

“Ya but, I promised him.”

“Tell him a garula ate them.” He held out a hand. Prompto took it carefully and let himself get pulled up.

“What?”

Ignis just shrugged. “He never has to know the truth.”

Prompto looked at the remains of the backseat. He thought about all the ways he failed - the cakes, the fact that it was a cigarette which he wasn’t even supposed to be smoking, how they were there really because of him in the first place.

“I keep making a mess of things.”

Ignis opened the driver side door. “Let’s get going.”

Well, it wasn't like he disagreed with Prompto.

 

* * *

 

Ignis was, by all accounts, ready to absolutely lose it. Again.

Seeing the hole in the back seat had sent him about over the edge. But then the way Prompto had crumbled...even though it was about the cakes and he probably wasn’t even thinking yet about the cost of the damages.

He saw something there, a desperation to do something for Noctis, that he could relate to.

They were silent as they drove. Prompto, despite all Ignis’s discouragement, sat with his knees up again, in something that seemed like his neutral anxiety position.

A part of him wanted to keep driving until they reached Insomnia, but the back windows were busted, and it was freezing out. Which probably was also why Prompto sat the way he did. So in order to protect them both from frostbite, he would have to delay things another night. It was about to drive him practically out of his mind, really.

He finally saw a sign for hotels and gas a mile away. Prompto did too, as he sat up and tapped on his thighs.

They pulled into the hotel, and a janitor eyed them suspiciously, which he didn’t blame them for. Their car was still smoking in the back, and he was sure that was not something anyone saw any day.

Ignis ignored the man though as he grabbed their bags from the trunk. Prompto was still walking like a zombie - but he managed to corral him into the lobby. A quick check at the clock gave him the time as seven in the evening - just a few more hours and they would have been home.

He shrugged it off, because there was no point in dwelling at that point. He guided Prompto to the counter, depositing him in a chair while he leaned against the counter and rung the bell.

A polite looking young man walked out from the back room.

“Greetings, I saw you had a vacancy still? Just need one night.”

“Yup,” the kid hardly gave Ignis a glance as he started pulling paperwork, “card please.”

He handed over his credit card and looked back at Prompto, who had his hands in his pockets and was just studying his boots. Ignis didn’t want to assume that he would want to spend the night with him, considering everything. If it were him, and it was him also, he would want the space, the time to himself.

A key-card slid across the table with his credit card. “Room 13. Check out is 11.”

“Appreciate it.” He grabbed his bag and placed a hand on Prompto’s shoulder. “Get some rest, alright?”

Prompto nodded. His grip on his luggage tightened. It was strange to see him not cradling the box of cakes. He was sure Prompto felt the same.

He made his way out of the lobby as Prompto walked up to the counter. Room 13 wasn’t too far off, so he was able to quickly get inside. It was a small room, basic setup. King bed, sub-par TV, small bathroom.

But it was quiet.

Ignis sighed and got undressed to take a quick shower. There was at least a set of bathrobes, which was kind of them. He hung his clothes in the bathroom to dry, since they were still wet from tossing snow on the car.

Hopefully the next day they would be able to handle the cold to just power through and get home thanks to some sun. He made himself some awful hotel room coffee, but he needed desperately to get caught up on emails and calls. Checking his phone, Gladio was probably about to have a mental breakdown with everything he had been covering.

The cigarette earlier had given Ignis an itch he had also been trying to avoid for sometime. But he didn’t have any himself - he debated texting Prompto, but instead he opened up the window to the balcony to just get some cold air in his lungs.

He leaned against the doorway - it had started to snow again. A movement caught his eye, and he turned a little towards the source - their car.

Prompto sat in the front seat. It looked like he had taken out all his clothes and was spreading them on top of himself.

“What the…” Ignis narrowed his eyes and walked out of the room, storming towards Prompto in nothing but his robe and shitty hotel room slippers.

“Prompto?” he said loudly as he approached the car.

Prompto snapped his head up and looked beyond embarrassed.

Ignis didn’t give him a chance to say much before he was on the driver side and opening the door.

“Ah hey, uh. Yo.” Prompto shuffled under all his clothes.

“What is this?”

“Well uh,” Prompto buried himself up to his chin, “you got the last room.”

Ignis could choke that kid at the desk.

“Why didn’t you just message me?”

“I’m--”

“Come on, get out of there.” Ignis started to pull the clothes off Prompto despite his trying to argue. He had everything in his arms, and started moving. “Let’s go!”

He heard Prompto close the door and footsteps following him.

“Look, you don’t have to do this.” They walked back into the room, and Ignis deposited the clothes on the small chair next to the window. He spun and pointed at Prompto, who froze mid-closing the sliding door.

“I’m not going to be the reason another person sits out in the cold all night. You could have gotten seriously sick or worse in this weather.”

Prompto wilted and finished closing the door. “Sorry.”

“Go take a hot shower to warm up. Then we’re ordering pizza.”

Prompto nodded and moved towards the bathroom. It wasn’t until the shower actually started that Ignis relaxed. He looked at the sheet on the desk with local delivery numbers and placed an order for pizza and soda. A quick search of the room also revealed a minibar. He grabbed all the small bottles of wine and liquors and put them on the two nightstands on either side of the bed.

He wasn’t sure about Prompto, but he was right ready to have a drink. He didn't want to think about how Prompto was willing sleep in an open air car to avoid him. No. 

He sent a flurry of texts to Gladio with more instructions. A note to Noctis as well with an update of their location.

He put his phone on a charger, and just as the shower turned off, there was a knock at the door. It was perfect; he could immediately put Prompto to eating and having a drink to wind down before falling asleep.

He turned on the TV and settled onto his side of the bed, pizza box nestled in the middle.

Prompto came out of the bathroom in the other fluffy robe, his hair slightly dry, skin reddened from the hot water.

“Better?” Ignis asked. He found himself fighting to focus on Prompto’s face, not on the patch of skin exposed from his neck to his chest. He tugged his own robe tighter around himself.

Prompto mimicked the movement. His eyes landed on the pizza.

“Oh fucking bless you dude,” he nearly fell forward onto the bed, and then saw the drinks as well.

“Really?”

Ignis shrugged. “We’ve had a rough few days. I think we earned it.”

Prompto grabbed a small bottle of a terrible brand of red wine. Ignis did the same, and they cheered. Ignis couldn’t help the smile.

“To surviving this gods forsaken journey.” Ignis muttered.

“Cheers to that.”

They both downed the bottles in one gulp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH NO ONE BED. AGAIN? WHATever shall happen next. 
> 
> :333


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _I'm bad at love_   
>  _But you can't blame me for trying_   
>  _You know I'd be lying saying_   
>  _You were the one_   
>  _That could finally fix me_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was a time for me. shoutout to blue, for helping me out and knowing exactly what i needed to get me back in the right headspace. And to the FFXV Book Club, for always cheering me on. <3 
> 
> also this chapter is why we mature rating. //finger guns//

Four mini bottles of terrible red wine and an entire pizza later, Ignis felt warmer than he had been in days. He tucked the soft robe around himself as much as he could, the bed had just the right amount of firmness, and the room was much better at holding off the chilly air than their half burned car.

So at least there was that.

The pizza box had been discarded to the floor, Prompto sat with his legs crossed facing Ignis, who had been resting with his back against the headboard. The television was on, but the volume had been made low by this point. Ignis didn’t even know what was on anymore - he had hardly been paying any attention to the screen for some time. Instead he found himself drawn to the cadence of Prompto’s voice as he spoke. And he was even _talking_ ; Ignis had been talking a lot. Somehow they had gotten onto the topic of relationships, though it started somewhere around weirdest job they'd ever had.

“Okay wait, let me get this straight.” Prompto set down his bottle of water with a thud. Ignis reflected proudly they had at least gotten themselves set up with water before getting too far into the wine. While he would say he was anything but a lightweight, the quality of the wine in their room left things unpredictable. And who knew Prompto’s ability to hold his liquor.

“Hmm?” He came back to the conversation, pulling his gaze away from staring at Prompto’s hands, away from how his fingers held and then released the bottle.

“You’re saying,” Prompto carried on, those long fingers now pointed at Ignis and he pulled back a little, “you’ve never been in a relationship? _You_?”

Ignis rolled his eyes but smiled as well. It wasn’t as though this were the first time someone asked him this. “In what free time? You know what kind of work I do.”

“Ya but-” Prompto adjusted himself so he mimicked Ignis’s position, and turned his head towards to face him, “doesn’t mean you can’t have someone to go home to, does it?”

Ignis licked his lips and settled against the headboard as well, but he found he couldn't look Prompto in the eye. So instead he looked at the TV, pretending to watch the infomercial apparently playing. It was clearly late, then -

“Iggy?”

He swallowed, a strange fluttering of nervousness swelling in his chest that he wasn’t particularly used to. A part of him wanted to say more, to explain what he truly felt, but the other part...“It’s hard when…”

“When?”

“When I need another drink.” Ignis grabbed another mini-bottle. They were out of the terrible red wine, so he was stuck with gods-awful white, before moving on to the hard stuff. Which he would try to avoid. But all white wine was mostly terrible on any given day, so he wasn’t looking forward to that either. He twisted the cap and took a large sip. Sure enough, the sting of alcohol hit his nose before his throat. Sighing, he studied the bottle instead of returning to Prompto's inquiry.

“Iggyyyyyy.” A body, _Prompto’s body,_ pressed against his arm. He allowed himself a peek as he deigned to finish the bottle, drawn to Prompto’s bright blue eyes staring up at him.

He felt warmer than before. Much too warm. He set down the wine and clasped his hands in his lap.“Ah, I shouldn’t be drinking. I get too...chatty.”

“I like this side of you though.” Prompto shifted out of his immediate view to lay down, so he was on his back with his head resting on Ignis’s thigh. Ignis lifted his hands and held his breath at the feeling of having Prompto’s weight pressed against his leg. The only person who was ever usually remotely close to him like this was Noctis, or Gladio on rare occasions.

“Why’s that?” He didn’t know what to do with his hands without touching Prompto, so he opted to fold them against his chest.

“You’ve been so…” Prompto’s eyes darted to the ceiling, then back to him, “well, I guess, uh, c-cold? I.. honestly I've been convinced you don’t like me since we started this whole trip. Thing. Whatever it is.”

Ignis finally unfolded his hands. He rested one on top of Prompto’s head, the other on his shoulder. He couldn’t help but let his fingers play with the soft strands of hair, partly because it felt soothing to do, and also out of guilt. Ignis hadn’t meant for any of his anger, more at himself than anything else, to be felt by Prompto.

Prompto stretched into Ignis’s touch and his eyes fluttered just a little. Ignis’s heart jumped into his throat in a very dangerous way. He cleared his throat but did not move his hands for fear Prompto would interpret it as he did something wrong.

“I mean, you did take the last of the Tenebreaen cakes that I had intended to buy for someone. I was quite cross, if you’ll recall.”

Prompto’s eyes snapped open. “Wait...wait I know you wanted them but... _who_ were you buying them for?”

Ignis froze. He had never let it be known that he had intended to buy the cakes for Noctis, but even without speaking his name he could sense Prompto’s leading question. It revealed too much, and Prompto caught on to the meaning clearly with how he sat up, twisting and planting his hands on either side of Ignis’s legs and leaning forward.

Ignis found himself trapped by pale arms and blue eyes.

“Iggy. Ignis. Ignis Scientiaiaitia. You looked ready to murder me for those cakes. I thought you just really wanted some to take home.”

Ignis didn’t know if he liked the direction this conversation had suddenly taken. Actually, he _knew_ he didn’t like. Something in Prompto’s tone worried him.

“I had made a promise I would bring some back. You prevented me from doing so.”

“Wait…” Prompto rolled away then, towards the nightstand, and took a bottle of his own white wine. He looked as if he had just solved the world's most difficult equation. “Wait. I think I just figured something out.”

“While drunk?”

“I’m not drunk!”

“Right.” He found he couldn’t help a grin as Prompto chugged his own ghastly white wine and set down the bottle triumphantly.

“I just needed to catch up to you. And think. And.”

“And?”

Prompto hopped onto the bed and pressed up into his space, no mind paid to the way his robe started to loosen, and came up close to his face. He studied Ignis, searching for something in his eyes, and it made him squirm.

“So we both made promises to bring back cakes.”

“Hmm.” Ignis kept his lips pursed together for his own safety.

“And we both had very...severe responses to breaking our promise.”

He clasped his hands over his chest again, schooling his expression best he could. Prompto gasped and his eyes widened.

No, Ignis didn't like this at all.

“Iggy, do you have feelings for _him_?”

He shifted and tilted his head. “For who?”

“Don’t even! You so do!” Prompto cupped his face in his hands. “Ohmygods that’s why you haven't dated anyone huh? Because of _him_.”

Ignis pulled out of his grasp and swatted his hands away. “You’re reading far too much into this. I just don’t like to disappoint Noctis.”

“Ah ha!” Prompto pulled himself up onto his knees and pointed down at Ignis. “You knew exactly who I was talking about!”

Ignis’s mouth hung open. He had been caught, and so easily, too. Clearly the wine had taken a toll on him. He tried to think through how to best move the topic away from this and debated how much wine Prompto would need to drink before he would forget their entire conversation.

“I don’t either, you know.” Prompto spoke softly.

Ignis, not sure what to make of that statement, lifted an eyebrow.

Prompto sighed. “I don't like to disappoint Noct.”

He let out a sigh. “Ah. I could tell, back there on the road.”

Prompto collapsed down to the bed. “No, but, I mean, I don’t like too because I do too.”

“Do what?” Ignis really had to get his head clear, but he found he was struggling more than usual.

Prompto was undeterred, moving forward and placing hands on his shoulders now and shaking him as he spoke. “I’ve had it bad for Noct since high school, okay? It _sucks_ , I know it does. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Iggy.”

Ignis let the silence hang between them as he processed the conversation. Then licked his lips. Things started to click into place.

He should have known, really, that they were both the same, both drawn by the same gravitational pull. Noctis had that effect on people he was close to. Gladio had at one point even questioned it himself, but then lost himself in the sea of women he spent time with every weekend. Ignis though, he had not been able to shake away the feeling, and it had festered and grown for years, as he was unable to find comfort in anyone else beyond meaningless rendezvous.

Prompto’s fingers dug into his shoulders and pulled at the robe a little to get his attention.

“Well,” Ignis tried to form words as he finally met Prompto’s stern glare. “Seems we’ve both found ourselves in a silly situation.”

There was no point in hiding it, Prompto clearly wasn’t going to let it go until the admittance was out his own mouth. And there was something almost freeing, to finally admit it out loud after all these years.

But Prompto didn’t celebrate the response. Instead, he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Ignis’s shoulders, cheek pressed to his own cheek. Ignis meanwhile, didn't dare move a muscle, unsure what was expected of him.

“I’m sorry,” Prompto whispered hoarsely. “It sucks to deal with this alone, I should know.”

Ignis swallowed. His arms moved, almost like he was hypnotized, around Prompto’s waist and held there lightly. Prompto sighed into the contact.

“Quite.”

“I mean, I’m glad he has Luna. He seems so happy. But...it hurts.”

Ignis forced himself to move his head back and away, but his hands tightened their grip on Prompto just so to pull at the soft material of the robe.

“Prompto, you know Noctis would want the world for you. You should be out looking for your own Luna.”

Prompto sat up and stared him down with a raised eyebrow.

Ignis couldn’t help a snort. “You know what I mean.” But it managed to make Prompto smile, at least, which he returned. He resisted the urge building in his fingers to reach up and brush Prompto’s bangs out of his face.

“Ya, I know I know. Just.” Prompto’s hands slipped away from Ignis, but he didn’t miss how they dragged down his chest, catching the edges of robe along the way, and made his breath catch.

Ignis really need some more water. He swallowed thickly and glanced over to his nightstand. His own bottle was empty.

“What about you?”

“Hm?” Ignis brought his focus back to Prompto, to his wide, worried blue eyes.

“Shouldn't you be doing the same?” His hands closed into fists on his legs, and Ignis followed the way they clenched there instead of meeting his gaze.

“I’m dedicated to my job, there’s not much room for anything else.”

“That’s not an answer.” There was a forcefulness to Prompto’s voice that caught Ignis off guard, made him look up at him despite all his efforts not to, made them hold eye contact.

“It’s not something I’ve given much thought to.” Ignis cleared his throat and pushed himself back a little, away from that stare.

Prompto, though, followed the movement, leaning his body forward where Ignis backed up, hands planted on either side of Ignis’s thighs and face close like before. But there was something different in the way he looked at Ignis this time.

“You should,” Prompto muttered, “you should think about it too.”

Ignis fought every nerve in his body that was yearning, aching for Prompto to close the distance between them. He clearly was just lonely - them being so close that morning had gotten to him. He hardly knew him, had never even paid him much mind when he had apparently been in Noct’s home so many times.

And they had been drinking.

He lifted his hands and placed them on Prompto’s arms, intending to push him back, to resist the way his blood was heating up inside him without his permission.

At the contact, he heard Prompto take a breath. By the time he looked up, Prompto was close, leaning forward and -

When their lips met, it wasn’t soft and unsure. Though Prompto’s breath stuttered his kiss was firm, mind made up. His fingers curled into Ignis’ robe, his eyes closed.

Ignis couldn’t argue anymore with the way his mind told him to just let himself have something for himself, just once.

He tightened his grip and pushed up into the kiss. He could feel the shift in Prompto’s confidence in that moment. It was no longer just _sure_ , it was _ready._ Ignis sat up more and Prompto’s arms wound around his shoulders as Ignis pulled him close, their robes not hiding the effects of the contact. The friction made them both gasp into their mouths, allowing for their tongues to meet in response, and Ignis wanted more than he ever thought he could. Prompto’s kiss was warm and his lips were soft, tasting of wine and pizza and even though that wasn’t what he thought he would ever want, Ignis wanted more.

His hands moved up, towards shoulders, and he pulled away for air to watch as he pushed the robe down freckled shoulders to expose a collarbone, toned chest, and _lord_ , Ignis was in trouble.

“Prompto-” he was interrupted by hands mimicking his own movements, by a deep kiss, and everywhere Prompto’s fingers touched shivered and left goosebumps in their wake. Hands roamed over each other and their barely covered erections pushed against each other.

Ignis somehow managed to lift his chin enough to escape Prompto’s snare, but it didn’t help him at all, as Prompto began to kiss down his throat. This was escalating, quickly, and his thoughts were clouded, conflicted with what he wanted and what they may regret.

“Prompto, wait.”

Prompto finally stilled. He sat back on his heels, skin blushing from chest to cheeks, robe hanging off him, and pulled his hands away. Ignis snatched them in his own though and leaned against the headboard - this wasn’t about him, this wasn’t a reflection on his clear _reaction_.

“I’m…” Prompto swallowed and tried to move, but Ignis held him in place.

“I just didn’t expect this, is all.” Ignis said quietly, as if Prompto were a startled creature he didn’t want to frighten off.

That wasn’t so far off from the truth, actually.

“Um-” Prompto resorted to chewing on his lip and looking down at their laps. “I figured you hated me, it’s okay-”

“Prompto, I don’t hate you.”

Prompto let out a huff and tugged his hands away, and this time Ignis let them go. “You don’t have to let me down easy, it’s fine.”

Gods save him. Ignis found himself reaching out before he could even stop or think about what he was doing. His fingers traced Prompto’s collarbone, his throat, traveled up to follow the line of his jaw, until his palm pressed to Prompto’s cheek.

Prompto closed his eyes and leaned into the touch.

“Just because I didn’t expect this, doesn’t mean I _hate_ you. I just meant I never expected it of anyone.”

At that admission, something Ignis had only ever revealed once, when drunk with Gladio, he felt his last sense of warning fall from him. It vanished when Prompto’s blown out eyes met his, his lips parted in an unheard sigh. He was beautiful, and Ignis was enraptured.

“I think that’s my line,” Prompto laughed once. He met Ignis’s hand with his own, a tentative press.

“Hmmm, I think we might both need some encouragement then, don’t you?” Ignis pushed his weight forward again and in one movement had his arms around Prompto, swinging him around so his back hit the bed. All Prompto had time for was a yelp before Ignis descended upon him, the fire in his blood too much to contain anymore.

Prompto met the challenge, though. Their robes were barely hanging on around their waists at this point, and he made quick work of removing both. There in just their underwear, Ignis made a sound of approval in this throat that would under any other circumstance be embarrassing, but here, in this moment, he let go as he pressed his chest to Prompto's. Their hips met and they rocked against each other, their kisses quickly moving from slow and deliberate to deep in between gasps for air.

Ignis could almost laugh that this was enough to get him so worked up. He had been with others before, though rarely, and had on time gone to seek the comfort of some with a little of his savings, just to let go of some tension without the worry. But this…

He sucked a spot onto Prompto’s collarbone and was rewarded with the lovely sound of Prompto moaning his name. One hand slid down to grip the edge of his underwear, and Prompto’s hips moved at the contact.

“May I?” he let his thumb brush the head of Prompto’s cock and smiled against his chest at the reaction, at how Prompto’s hips snapped up and fingers dug into his back.

“Please, omygodsplease. Ignis.”

The sound of Prompto begging to him was a prayer. He filed that away as something to think about much later, when this was done and Prompto had most inevitably decided this was a mistake. He wouldn’t let himself dwell on that though. Instead he focused on listening to the request, on sliding down Prompto’s lithe body of freckles and moles, on kissing just under his belly button while both his thumbs pushed up the length of him, his hardness just making Ignis want even more.

Prompto whined beautifully and arched up off the bed.

Ignis made quick work of getting him naked. Prompto had barely sat back down before Ignis pushed him to the bed and had his beautiful cock in his mouth.

Ignis tried to ignore the warmth, the feeling in his chest. He opened his mouth wide and focused on Prompto, on making him feel good, and soon had Prompto wiggling and panting under him. He relished the feeling of Prompto’s fingers in his hair and how they pulled. He moaned around Prompto and moved quickly, slowly, then licked and sucked more, all testing to see what Prompto liked, what got the best reaction out of him. Prompto didn’t like to be touched gently - he reacted most when Ignis sucked hard, pulled tight, let his tongue push against Prompto’s length as he moved.

When he could sense Prompto getting to the edge by his hurried whispers, and his hips straining against Ignis’s hand, Ignis would slow.

“Ignis I swear to all the astrals please,” Prompto moaned and when Ignis chanced a glance, they made eye contact while Ignis slowly slid down him once more. Prompto let out one more curse under his breath, and that was it. He cried out an attempt at a warning, but Ignis closed his mouth around Prompto and swallowed, his nose pressed to the soft skin of Prompto’s stomach.

When Prompto ceased mumbling curse words and what sounded like prayers, Ignis pulled away slowly and sat back on his heels. Prompto stared up at the ceiling looking debauched. Ignis thought about how much more he wanted to ruin him, how it would feel to spend the night close to him.

That line of thought sent him reeling - it was followed by thoughts of that morning, of being pressed close together, nuzzling against a warm body. He moved closer, sliding up Prompto’s body, and the way he just _smiled_ as Ignis closed the distance and pressed their lips together made him smile into the kiss --

A buzzing sound interrupted his thoughts. He looked to his left where his phone vibrated in time with a notification that flashed on his screen. He leaned over out of Prompto’s reach with a whispered apology -

Noct: _aw man, sorry you’re stuck. Get back soon okay? We need you here._

Something else replaced the warmth in his veins, cold and unforgiving. He scrambled to explain to himself what he and Prompto were doing, what this all meant. It was a rare moment where Ignis was filled with a sense of something that had become a trend on this hellbent journey - _Guilt. Uncertainty._

He moved further from Prompto and closer to the phone, cradling it in his hand and sitting with a sigh as he typed a quick answer.

Ignis: _Of course. I’ll be there tomorrow._

He sent the response, put the phone on silent and set it facedown on the table.

Prompto’s soft voice, hands moving across sheets, pulled him back. “Iggy?”

A mix of emotions welled up inside him that he didn’t quite know, or want, to acknowledge. The message from Noctis had pulled him out of whatever haze he had fallen into, and Ignis worried now he had maybe gone too far. Prompto had only wanted company, not to be alone, and he had taken it to a place they could never turn back from. And while they had been drinking. It wasn’t fair of him, and it wasn’t right.

Prompto seemed to finally come back around as well and managed to get himself sitting upright as Ignis stood off the bed and grabbed one of the hotel bottles of water they had yet to touch. He could feel Prompto’s eyes on him - and he turned slowly as he drank and walked over to hand him a bottle.

Prompto took it while studying Ignis. He took a long sip and sat the bottle down on the nightstand, and as Ignis put the cap back on his own, he sat up and crawled over.

Before hands could touch him, Ignis intervened, twining their fingers.

“Prompto-”

His eyebrows drew tight. Ignis stepped back. They stayed frozen in a strange limbo, until Ignis muttered an “Excuse me,” and moved into the bathroom.

He had already showered, but a new layer of sweat stuck to him and so he moved their clothes and turned on the water. He stood there waiting for it to warm up, studying his reflection. Glasses smudged, hair a mess, a small mark on his shoulder. Red tracks of nails up his arms.

He let out a breath. This was a mistake, he shouldn’t have let himself go at all like he had. He had vowed long ago that he wouldn’t let himself make that mistake again - he had fallen hard for someone once before and it just ended in an unrequited mess. The message from Noct...it was a reminder of that.

After the bathroom started steaming from the hot water, he got in the shower and spent much too long under the pressure of water. He willed for some of the tension to leave his body to no avail. By the time he got out of the bathroom, all the lights save for the one on his nightstand were off - Prompto was curled up on his side under the covers mostly hidden except for a tuft of blond hair.

Ignis held the sigh in his throat. It was probably better this way; they would both be on the same page when they woke up in the morning more sober and aware of what they were doing. Tonight they were just two lonely people with broken hearts they had never cared to repair.

He slid under the covers, mindful to stay as close to his edge as possible to give Prompto space. He focused on breathing, to keep himself from thinking too much of the heat he could still feel radiating from Prompto’s body.

Tomorrow, they would focus on getting home.

 

* * *

 

An alarm softly playing chimes before being shut off. A warm body moving. Cold air hitting his skin. The shitty hotel room coffee maker boiling water.

All this in the background, hardly noticed, while the night before replayed in its entirety for the millionth time since Prompto had tucked himself under the blankets and pretended to fall asleep.

Clearly Ignis thought it was a mistake. Clearly he was shutting Prompto out.

He shuddered and rubbed his face into the cheap hotel pillow, almost accepting how it scratched his cheek.

Okay, so maybe he’d been silly to think he and Ignis could find comfort together since they were both hurt. But everything up until the moment Ignis had pulled away had felt so _good_. Almost right. Which was something Prompto hadn’t really felt no matter how many times he had tried to run from his feelings for Noctis.

And seeing Ignis like _that,_ the smooth calculating Ignis he thought didn’t have an ounce of anything aside from complete composure in his veins, had rolled around in bed with him, had _touched_ him.

He tried not to recall how it felt, because it would just fucking hurt.

Prompto had fooled around some sure, but never anything serious. Maybe that’s just how he had to look at this. Like Ignis was just someone he had met and totally wouldn’t have to see again. Again. And again.

He sighed into his pillow.

Soon he would have to start getting dressed and make sure their car would get them to Insomnia. By evening they would be back home. And by the next day they would be at the engagement party. He would be forcing a smile, watching Noct as he happily stood beside Luna, knowing he and Ignis were less than happy -

He could sense movement beside him.

A hand on his shoulder, soft careful.

“Prompto?” Ignis whispered and Prompto nearly whined at the contact. How much had he been craving all this time? Fuck, he was such a mess.

He shifted, but didnt turn to look at Ignis. He wasn’t sure he could handle it. He stayed curled up under the covers.

“Ya?” His voice cracked and he sounded terrible but that was as good as it was gonna get.

“I-” Ignis paused. Then the hand slid, just a little, down Prompto’s arm. And _gods_ Prompto wanted to believe so much that Ignis wanted something. Fuck he hated just how much he ached for it.

“We should get going.” The hand moved away, and then Ignis was in the restroom.

Prompto let out one small, tiny sound that was almost an exhale, before he sat up. He quickly got dressed, made himself some shitty hotel room coffee and downed it. He was glad he had gotten up in the middle of the night to wash at least. He made sure his bag was ready, and looked around.

He decided maybe it was best he just waited by the car. He grabbed his carry-on and put on his jacket, putting Ignis’s gloves in his pocket because despite everything he felt, he could at least not be cold if he could help it. He stepped out the balcony and closed it behind him, and walked over to the car. The snow overnight left a beautiful crispness to the air, eerily quiet around him. His boots crunched in the snow, and it was almost calming.

Almost.

Walking up to the car was just a reminder of everything. Of how much he had fucked up, of the mess they were in, of everything he failed to do.

The back seat was full of melting snow. Prompto didn’t even bother with it. He put his bag in the trunk and then plopped into the passenger seat, assuming of course he was never allowed to drive ever again.

He curled up his knees and had his phone in front of him, headphones in listening to music when Ignis got in the car. He pulled his hoodie around him a little more, focusing on distracting himself. Noct wasn’t up yet, and even if he were he was sure he had plenty of other things to do than comfort his dumb friend.

It was fine.

Ignis didn’t start the car though.

“Prompto,” the keys were in the ignition, but Ignis rested his head on his hands, placed on top of the steering wheel.

Prompto lowered his head to his knees and pulled one earphone out to show he was listening.

“I took advantage of you.”

He snapped his head up. That was _not_ what he was expecting at all. “What?”

“We had been drinking, we were being open with each other, and I took advantage of your...our vulnerabilities. I’m sorry.”

Prompto snorted and shook his head. The last thing he had expected to hear out of the man’s mouth this morning was an apology, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. “You’re an idiot.”

He turned his head so his cheek rested on his knees, looking at Ignis, who was still resting his head on the wheel. A wind blew through the car and whipped around them.

“I am aware,” Ignis said carefully, “but I shouldn’t have done anything to hurt you.”

“Do you hate me?” He caught how Ignis winced at the question. But really, he was tired.

They studied each other. Ignis sucked in a deep breath.

“Okay, wow you don’t have to say it.” Prompto tried to smile. Whatever Ignis had said the night before, it was clear he was uncomfortable with what had happened.

He turned his head. “I’ll be quiet until--”

“Would you just-”

They both stopped. Prompto didn’t dare look back at him.

“Prompto, I don’t hate you. At all. A lot has just happened in a few short days., I worry I’m not myself.”

“And that includes last night.”

He chanced a look and Ignis sat back, dropping his hands at his sides. “We’ve both had a rough time with our feelings. I didn’t want to add to it, for either of us.”

“Bold of you to assume you can protect me from feelings. Have you met me?”

Ignis actually laughed at little. His head hit the back of the seat.

“How about,” Ignis started, worrying his cheek a little. “How about we get home first.”

“Then what?”

“Considering how this trip has gone, maybe we just need to worry about that later.”

Prompto sighed and unfurled his legs, stretching them out in front of him. He put his other headphone back in, though he wasn’t listening to anything anymore. He just wanted to have an air of solace.

Ignis started the car.

The drive was boring. The snow was pretty but it covered up most of the landscape. They had literally just a few hours to go, but his stomach started to grumble about an hour into the drive.

He put his arms over his stomach, hoping the wind around them hid the sound.

But soon Ignis pulled into a small rest stop with a restaurant. He side-eyed Ignis, who just got of the car and stretched. Prompto followed and pulled out his headphones, giving Ignis a look.

Ignis just shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket - that was looking slowly worse and worse, wrinkles and dirt smudges all around. It was strange to see him looking less than put together.

“Some food will give us energy for the last leg I’m sure.” Ignis muttered, and with that he turned towards the restaurant.

Prompto sighed and followed Ignis inside, and they sat across from each other in a booth. It was better to have that space between them. Prompto stretched out.

He jumped when he brushed across Ignis’s calf and pulled back so hard he banged his knee on the underside of the table. In the time it took for him to stop curling up in the seat in pain, Ignis had ordered them both coffee and water.

He sat up, eyes watering. Ignis had this look, it was a weird one on him, like he felt really bad about something.

“Thanks for ordering life’s elixir,” Prompto hissed as he dumped five sugar packets into his coffee.

“Prompto...”

Fuck, Ignis was saying his name a lot. What was up with that?

Luckily the waitress came by and they had to focus instead on ordering. Prompto said fuck it and got the french toast with orange marmalade and whipped cream and a side of eggs and bacon because fuck everything, to be honest.

Menus gone, Prompto decided to look up how much longer he would have to be in what could be deemed as the worst roadtrip in the history of Eos. “Hey cool, traffic seems clear, so we should be there by afternoon. That means you still have tonight to finish up everything. ”

“Yes, at least Gladio has managed this so far beautifully. I owe him.”

“Ya, cool of him to help.” Prompto switched out of the traffic app. Silence fell between them as he scrolled through his social media and focused on not looking up at Ignis. He sent Noct a few emojis of confetti for whenever he got to look at his phone. Or woke up.

“I just want you to know,” Ignis’s voice carried across the table quietly. Prompto risked looking up. He still had that look. “ I don’t hate you. I think it’s the opposite, if my actions last night were any indication.”

“Iggy we’re in a shitty diner right now.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And we have to sit in a small car together for the next few hours.”

Prompto licked his lips and looked out the window. “Why did you just. Stop.”

“I think I’m awful at this.”

He turned and studied Ignis, hands on the table and folded, staring at the table.

“I think I’ve spent so much time worried about Noctis, about how there could never be someone who was my center like him, how I had somehow found myself so dedicated to one person. I didn’t see how there could ever be room for someone else.”

Ignis shrugged, and met Prompto’s probably obvious and confused stare. “I create walls very quickly.”

Their food came and interrupted them once more. Prompto decided to distract himself in the best idea of the day also known as french toast.

Ignis didn’t even pick up his fork though, just kept talking and really Prompto just wanted to just go home. “I’m not saying that last night shouldn’t have happened, I’m just saying that I could have been more mindful. Of the consequences. That doing it would bring.”

At that Prompto set down his fork and looked up. “Look, dude. Ignis. I’m an adult, okay? I-I...can handle rejection. I can handle a one night stand or whatever. But we have to see each other, right? Around Noct. So let’s just. Drop it. It happened, you don’t want it to happen again, I get it.”

He went back to his french toast. Ignis was talking in circles and it hurt his head. Either he wanted it to happen or he didn’t there wasn’t an inbetween.

They finished their food in silence, and Ignis insisted on paying for the food. And Prompto was tired of fighting, and he had no money. So.

In the car, he focused on his phone even though the battery was dying because he forget to charge it the night before. Of course.

“Why were you in Niflheim, by the way?” Ignis asked after about half an hour of quiet.

He fidgeted and debated even answering. But like he had said, they had to see each other. He supposed he could just play along with pretending nothing happened. “Visiting my family.”

“Ah, I didn’t know you were from there.”

“I left when I was really little.” He didn’t feel like going through his sob story. Not to Ignis, not now when he clearly saw Prompto as weak and emotional and unable to handle anything.

“You know-” Ignis stopped talking and focused on his rearview mirror. He narrowed his eyes.

Prompto looked behind them and saw flashing lights. “Is that a cop? Pulling us over?!”

“Seems like it is.” Ignis sighed and drove over to the side of the road.

“Literally can this trip get any worse? What did we do to the gods?”

“I’d like to know that as well.” Ignis turned off the car. A woman with silver hair pulled into a ponytail walked up to Ignis’s side, and when she leaned down she gave Prompto a look that made him sit up straight and stare straight ahead.

“There a problem, officer?” Ignis sounded like he hadn’t just been through hell and back the last two days. It was impressive.

“License and registration.” The cop asked with a tone that said they were anything less than totally fucked.

Ignis of course reached over and popped open the glovebox and pulled out the documentation that Prompto had thankfully remembered to store. He then handed both that and his license over.

The scary lady officer looked over everything, then gave him a stern look.

This was it, this was how they were going to die. This cop was going to drag them both out of the car and toss them into the snow and leave them to die.

She leaned down, arm draping the window. Prompto cowered into his hoodie.

“This isn’t your rental, Mr. Scientia.”

 _Shit shit shit._ “Ah!” Prompto piped up and leaned over with a wave. “I rented it! Hi! Sorry yes. It’s okay he didn’t take the car from me I’m good.”

She raised an eyebrow as she studied Prompto, then looked to Ignis. Then back to Prompto and held out her hand. “Hand over your ID then, kid.”

“Yup yup!” He fumbled and managed to hand it over with only a slight shake in his hand. In doing so, he had to push up against Ignis’s shoulder. He pulled back into his seat, and he and Ignis exchanged a look.

“First, your contract here states only you can drive.” She tapped the license on the window.

Prompto fumbled, leaning forward onto the dash to see her instead of leaning towards Ignis again. “Oh, ah. I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“Second, I actually pulled you over because your car is leaking so badly, I could follow your trail down the highway.”

“Excuse me?” Ignis’s voice went up an octave higher than he had ever heard.

“Step on out.”

They both got out of the car and went around to the back where she waited.

Sure enough there was a strip of liquid that led from the road to where they were now parked. Prompto got down on the floor and inspected what he could without crawling under the car.

“Looks like you had a little problem here.” The cop said while looking in the backseat.

“Ah yes, a small mishap with a cigarette, Officer…”

“Highwind.”

“Officer Highwind.”

While the two talked, Prompto wondered if he could just stay there on the road forever. He could see the liquid pooling under the car quickly. He hopped up and went to the backseat, and checked to see if his hunch was right.

“Shit.” He hated being right. He leaned his back against the car and rubbed his face with his hands.

“Prompto?”

He stared out at the horizon. “The fire must have gotten down something under the car. Who knows what’s leaking right now.”

“I can’t let you keep driving this car.” Officer Highwind’s voice seemed far away.

Ignis sounded like he was about to lose it. Honestly, Prompto wouldn’t blame him at this point. “Excuse me?”

“Grab your stuff, we’ll get it towed and I can give you a ride to the next rest stop.”

Prompto groaned. They were literally _so close_. So fucking close to this nightmare being over. But they both listened to their orders, grabbing their bags and sitting in the back of the cop car while the remains of their poor rental was loaded up onto a tow truck the officer had radioed in for. Prompto kept his forehead pressed against the cold window. He didn’t chance a look at Ignis.

As the tow truck pulled away, the officer got in the driver seat. “Ok boys, let’s get you to Hammerhead.”

 

* * *

 

Hammerhead was like much of the land they had passed while driving during this godsforsaken journey - dreary and vast. But the snow had started to melt at least, so it was mostly dirt instead of snow as the sun rose to its highest. It was nice to finally feel warmth again after so much cold.

Ignis and Prompto wished Officer Highwind farewell after she dropped them off at the small gas station and garage. He was sure that their car would have made it to Insomnia, but he understood the dangers a car leaking something could cause.

So he and Prompto stood there watching as the tow truck pulled in minutes later, and a large man starting to unload the poor car that did nothing to deserve this fate except get tied to two of the unluckiest people in Eos.

A whistle behind them made them both jump. “My my, that’s the worst car I’ve seen in a while, and I see a lot around these parts.”

They both spun around to see a young woman, bright blonde curls, baseball cap, dirty overalls and shirt, staring up at them both.

Ignis cleared his throat. “Ah, hello. Yes we’ve hit a small snag it seems.”

“Hmmhm. My guy there gave me a call. My name’s Cindy, by the way. Hate to say it but we don’t have an easy way to fix her today. We’ll have to get...several parts, order in.” Her eyes drifted back to the car, and she crossed her arms in thought.

“Of course.” He looked at Prompto, who looked like he was about to cry. If Ignis were being honest, he was about to also.

“You, uh, you okay there sweetheart?” Cindy stepped up to Prompto, who hid a little behind Ignis. Which was saying something in that moment.

Ignis covered for him, “We just had an important engagement tomorrow night. We’ve been trying to get to Insomnia for two days from Niflheim.”

“Oh shoot. Travel from there has been a nightmare, I’m surprised you made it this far.”

“We are as well.” Ignis looked behind him to Prompto and offered a small smile, but he only looked down at the ground.

“Is there any way we could borrow a car for the weekend?”

Cindy looked around, worrying her bottom lip. “I don't have a car here, but Dave I think is about to head to Insomnia on a run.” She motioned to one of the big trucks parked in the next lot over. “He might be able to at least get you to the train station just inside the city.”

Ignis let out a sigh of relief. “We would appreciate that very much if you could help us arrange it.”

“Sure thing sweets,” she said with a wink. She sauntered off in the direction of the truck, and Ignis turned to face Prompto.

“Well, that’s nice of her,” Prompto whispered, but Ignis could tell he was still upset, still putting up a wall. Which was fair.

“Yes, once at the station we are at least in familiar territory and can take the train the rest of the way.”

“Ya,” Prompto shuffled his feet and stepped away. Ignis wanted to talk more, but it was clear Prompto was too upset. That was Ignis’s fault, entirely. He wasn’t sure what to do moving forward, to make up for everything he had done and said. Their drive to Hammerhead had been quiet, giving him much time to think about what had happened, their trip, and how much had changed over a short period of time for them both.

How much Ignis had been the cause of Prompto’s distress.

He followed Prompto to where he stood against the wall of the convenience store lighting a cigarette.

As he approached he rolled his shoulders and lifted his chin, “Prompto…”

“Hey fellas!” Cindy shouted across the lot. He turned to see her waving. “Dave says he's leaving in five minutes, so get your butts over there.”

Prompto took one more long drag and put his cigarette out on the wall before tossing it. He moved past Ignis, who moved to catch up quickly. They grabbed their bags and Ignis offered a bow of thanks to a laughing Cindy before climbing into the back seats of Dave’s truck. Ignis wished terribly for some amount of privacy so he could talk to Prompto before they potentially parted ways at the train station, instead of Prompto having the out of plugging his phone into the charger offered and putting in his headphones.

Ignis really had messed up here. He was very unfamiliar with the feeling.

He and Dave made some small talk to pass the time as they drove, since Prompto had completely disengaged from them. He didn’t feel it was his most shining moment as a conversationalist, but he hoped he made the time not so terrible for the kind services offered by Dave and Cindy.

A sigh of relief escaped him as they passed the signs that showed they had entered the city limits of Insomnia. In the distance he could see the tall skyscrapers of downtown. They were home.

Dave pulled over not long after. He pointed to his right. “Train station is just down this road.”

“Thank you so much, Dave. Really.” Ignis climbed out. He reached a hand up to help Prompto, but he only hopped down on the other side. They met at the side of the road but Prompto kept his lips tightly pressed and eyes turned away. They both waved as Dave pulled away.

Ignis had a short amount of time to-

Prompto turned abruptly, hand not pulling his luggage shoved in his hoodie.

‘Prompto, please wait.”

He actually did. He stopped and looked back to Ignis. He took in the way Prompto’s jaw tightened, the redness of his eyes. He found he couldn’t speak.

After a prolonged silence, Prompto shifted. “See you at the party.” He spoke with a smile that Ignis knew was fake, not reaching at all past his lips.

Then he turned and walked ahead.

Ignis stood there, gripping his bag, his other hand clenched at his side. He swallowed. He had messed up, bad. Terribly. Monumentally.

He let Prompto get a good distance ahead of him, until he turned a corner, before he started walking as well. He pulled out his phone and made a call.

“About time I heard from you,” Gladio's rough voice came through.

He tried to sound as put together as he possibly could. “I'll be at the venue by tonight. Just getting on a train at the city's edge.”

_“Thank the six. You’ll be a sight for sore eyes. Everyone here is losing their minds.”_

He smiled, and felt it was as fake as Prompto’s appeared. “We’ll be alright. See you soon.”

_“See ya soon.”_

He hung up as he got to the station, and made a point to try not to look for Prompto in the crowd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompto's having a time I'm sorry. 
> 
> I should know more about cars probably being raised by a mechanic but just roll with any hand wavey car stuff here ok. :33
> 
> We're almost there though!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hello Gladio,” Ignis crossed the street and for a second debating stopping into his local haunt for a coffee. But no time. “I’ve made it.”
> 
>  _“Oh thank fuck.”_
> 
> Ignis smiled despite the fear that response garnered. “I just need to stop by my apartment and change, then I’ll be at the venue.”
> 
>  _“Great, see you soon.”_
> 
> “See you.” As he hung up, he could swear he started to hear in the background Noctis shouting something with his name. 
> 
> But where before that would have made him smile, this time it made him frown. 
> 
> _Prompto…_
> 
>  
> 
> ***
> 
> The show must go on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all - this is the last chapter! thank you SO MUCH everyone for your support for what had started as just a silly au idea i had in my brain after watching a silly movie. this was really fun to write, and I'm so glad others enjoyed it.
> 
> Second - there's more explicit content in here, so heads up!

Ignis braced himself the entire train ride into downtown Insomnia, waiting for the moment when everything crashed around him once more. He sat on the edge of his seat gripping his briefcase, looking out the window for any sign of trouble - maybe the train would catch on fire, maybe the track would be destroyed up ahead, maybe there would be robbers.

Were there still train robberies?

It wasn’t like him, to be so anxious. The whole ordeal had gotten to him, truly. He didn’t feel like he had a handle on anything, from the party to his emotions.

All his texts with Gladio had made it seem like everything was under control, but also Gladio was probably hiding the truth. With Ignis unable to do anything to help, of course he wouldn’t want him to worry from so far away. But his brain happily supplied all the different ways things could, and probably had, gone wrong since he had started this journey from Niflheim.

The caterer cancelled. Noctis’s suit had been tailored wrong. Luna’s designer dress didn’t look anything like what the sketch had shown. The venue burned down.

Normal things to be concerned over.

Within the hour the train pulled into the downtown Insomnia station. He blinked, unsure how time had passed so quickly when he had just been _worrying_ the whole time _._ But he got out of his seat and stepped off the train as if nothing was wrong at all. Making his way through the busy station, and then up the stairs, crossing the busy center until he took the last set of stairs to the outside -

He could almost cry at the sight of the Insomnia skyline.

In truth, he may have teared up a little.

He was also very tired.

He let out a long sigh and pulled out his phone, making a call to Gladio as he started to walk in the direction of his home. He wasn’t far from the station, so soon he would be relieved of days worn clothes and could focus on the party properly.

Gladio picked up after the fifth ring which didn’t help Ignis’s anxiety at all. _“Hello?”_

“Hello Gladio,” Ignis crossed the street and for a second debating stopping into his local haunt for a coffee. But no time. “I’ve made it.”

_“Oh thank fuck.”_

Ignis smiled despite the fear that response garnered. “I just need to stop by my apartment and change, then I’ll be at the venue.”

_“Great, see you soon.”_

“See you.” As he hung up, he could swear he started to hear in the background Noctis shouting something with his name.

But where before that would have made him smile, this time it made him frown.

_Prompto…_

He looked around, as if maybe there was a chance Prompto might be around. But the truth was he didn’t even know where Prompto lived - he could have gotten off the train at any station, or maybe had even still been on it, and Ignis would have had no idea. He really didn’t know him at all.

Ignis decided to get a coffee.

The baristas inside all stared at him as he entered - and he realized too late he looked very much not himself as he walked up to the counter. His suit was filthy at this point, his shoes scuffed, and he hadn’t done his hair that morning so his bangs hung across his face. He offered his best smile though, and the pleasant girl who was always there when he came for his afternoon break grabbed the largest size cup they had.

“Usual?”

“Yes very much so, thank you Amelia.”

She smiled and rung him up, “Rough day?”

“Rough week,” he paid and stood to the side, though no one else was in line.

“Well, the party of the century is tomorrow night right? At least until the wedding.” Amelia went to making pouring his afternoon drink of choice - Ebony had come out with a cold brew not long ago and it was like liquid heaven in his veins.

“Quite,” he found he could smile a little easier somehow, “I look forward to seeing the happy couple.”

“Right?” She handed him the drink with a dreamy look in her eyes. “They way Noctis smiles at Luna, gosh I want that so much.”

Ignis cleared his throat and this time the smile felt more forced. “Thank you for the drink.”

She shouted a “See you!” as he turned and left.

He sipped his coffee as he walked the rest of the way to his apartment, making a mental list of everything he needed to do before he headed to meet Gladio. The engagement party was taking place at the top of the tallest building in Insomnia, in their rotating restaurant. It was just a quick drive over, so he had enough time to shower and wash his hair, style himself to look like he hadn’t been through hell and back the last few days.

His apartment seemed like paradise after what he had been through. He stripped as he nearly ran to the bathroom, and got the water on as hot as it would go. He took off his glasses and rubbed his face with his hands - when he looked at his reflection he was knocked back to the night before.

The tracks from Prompto’s fingernails were gone, but what he had missed before was a small mark right under his ear, clearly left by Prompto’s ministrations on his neck.

Ignis leaned forward and inspected the mark. His body shivered, recalling the feeling of Prompto sitting in his lap, the way he had kissed him with so much anticipation.

Ignis pulled away from the mirror as if shocked. Shower. He needed to shower.

He scrubbed himself down, washed his hair, and stood letting the water loosen the tense muscles of his back. He distracted himself with his to-do list; Clothes on. Hair done. Folder of contracts, itemized lists of what should be at the venue, contacts.

He went through the motions on auto-pilot to not give himself even a moment’s breath to think of anything other than the party.

Dressed in a clean suit for the first time in days, hair done and glasses unsmudged, he headed down to his car. His favorite meditation music lulled him as he drove, helping him take deep breaths.

Just two more days. Then he could really sleep. Maybe take a day off. Or ten.

The elevator ride up to the restaurant was when his stomach began to unsettle. He would be seeing Noctis, after all of this, after admitting out _loud_ to someone who knew him about his feelings.

After being in bed with Noctis’s best friend.

Gods.

He didn’t have a moment to reconsider everything before the elevator opened to the restaurant lobby.

“Iggy! Thank the _fucking_ astrals!” Gladio’s voiced boomed as he looked up at the sound of the elevator. He stormed over and grabbed Ignis in a full body hug, which Ignis honestly was more than happy to return given the circumstances.

“It’s good to be home.”

“I’ll say.”

“So, what’s the damage report?” He followed Gladio into the restaurant and -

Froze.

“Gladio…” He studied the room in complete amazement. It was…

“Pretty good huh?” Gladio gave him a smirk and crossed his arms. “Didn’t think I could do it, did you?”

He knew his mouth hung open but really he didn’t care. “You made it sound like everything was in dire straits.”

“I didn’t want you to think we didn’t need you and take your sweet time. I still need you here tomorrow to run this dog and chocobo show.”

Ignis shook his head as he turned in place slowly to look over everything. It was everything he had imagined with the planners. They had selected this place because it was in such a tall building, but also because it was floor to ceiling windows all around in a circle, with a giant aquarium in the center. That made it seem perfect enough.

But all their careful planning with their team had paid off as well. The cocktail tables scattered throughout held beautiful bouquets of sylleblossoms and baby’s breath in elaborate glass vases, tied with black ribbons. Small stones had been placed sporadically on the leaves of the flowers which made them glint thanks to the lights of the large chandeliers.

It seemed something out of a fairy tale. It was perfect.

“You did amazing.” Ignis breathed out and pushed up his glasses, “though how dare you lead me to believe everything was terrible considering my situation.”

Gladio only laughed and shrugged.

“Specs?” a voice rang out behind him, and Ignis froze.

He put on his best smile as he turned around to the source. Noctis stood there, hands in his pockets, a lazy half smile on his face.

“I told you I would get here today.”

“Like I doubted it, you’re so stubborn.” He charged forward and grabbed his arm, not quite coming in for a hug. Ignis clasped his forearm in return.

“Very true. Gladio I’m sure will tell me what I still need to do though.”

Noctis laughed, then looked around behind Ignis. “Hey, where’s Prompto? I figured you two would just come by together.”

Ignis didn’t catch himself in time before his fingers tightened on Noctis, who raised an eyebrow. He released Noct and dropped his arm, adjusting his sleeves.

“Prompto returned home. We both needed to have our own showers and a change of clothes quite badly. And I’m sure he has things to tend to.”

“Pssh. Prom? He would have jumped at the chance to come here.” he pulled out his phone and started texting. Ignis looked back to Gladio, who was already deep in conversation with one of the planners. Ignis felt weirdly...out of place. It was an unusual feeling for him.

“I’m sure he was tired.” Ignis repeated while distracting himself with looking around the restaurant.

“Ya, but he always hates to be alone after he goes back to Niflheim. That's usually when he’s over at my place for at least three days straight. Is he okay?”

At that, Ignis turned and looked back to Noctis. “What do you mean?”

Noctis gave him another studied look. “It's just, it’s hard for him to go home, he doesn’t like to go home to an empty house. “

Ignis licked his lips. “I don’t follow.”

“Oh my god what did you guys even talk about for three days?”

Gladio snorted, having returned back to the conversation. He leaned on Ignis's shoulder which only made him feel more anxious in that moment. .

“We passed the time, but he didn’t mention much about what he was doing in Niflheim, not really.”

Gladio and Noctis shared a look.

“What?” His pulse quickened because he was realizing he had somehow messed up even worse than what he had originally anticipated.

“Geez Iggy.” Gladio rolled his head and sighed. “Sometimes you’re a mess.”

Noctis gripped the table and leaned forward, to nearly touch his forehead to it. “Prompto goes back there once a year to visit his family.”

“Yes he mentioned that but what-”

“At their family mausoleum.”

Ignis froze. “Pardon?”

Noct grabbed his phone off the table and shoved it in his pocket with a sigh. “His family, they were in an accident when he was just a toddler. Prompto came here after he was adopted by a foster family because he had no other family they knew of.”

Ignis leaned against the table not so unlike Noct just before. So much of their time together came swirling back.

“He didn’t mention that part did he?” Noct sighed. “He wouldn’t want to make you feel sorry for him, he’s about as stubborn as you are.”

Ignis’s fingers pulled at the tabletop but he refused to look up. “It seems so.”

 

* * *

 

Prompto couldn’t remember the last time his bed felt so fucking good. He curled up under the covers to avoid the rays of morning sun coming through his blinds. The night before he had just fallen right into bed, and not gotten up since. He really didn’t have the energy to do much else; the whole few days really caught up to him.

He hadn't even had time to think about his time in Niflheim, really since leaving, which was actually the one good thing he could say about their trip from hell at this point.

But now he had thought about it, and the dark thoughts started to claw at the corners of his mind.

He shook his head and reached out his hand to feel around for his phone somewhere on the bed. Upon finding it he pulled it with him under the covers, not wanting to have any light hit him to bring him out of his half asleep state. But he did see a bunch of notifications from Noct, which could be a helpful distraction.

But also it dawned on him Noct would know something was up. He was always at Noct's after a trip.

He couldn’t bring himself to look at the messages yet and risk worrying Noct more. He turned his phone off and shoved it back out and away from him. That night he would be at the engagement party, and he would have to face now not only his high school crush he never had a chance with, but also the super smart handsome guy he totally blew it with.

It was going to be a wild night.

And so he determined he would stay in bed until the very last moment.

He started to somehow doze off when he smelled something. Like...burning? Wait no...cooking? He sat up quickly and got dizzy, but he tried to focus - was there a fire in his apartment? Were the neighbors cooking? He sat still, listening.

He caught the sounds of someone moving around in his kitchen. He narrowed his eyes and climbed out of bed slowly. He grabbed one of his twenty pound dumbbells and quietly walked out into the hallway. He took a breath to try to control his pulse and creeped around the corner until he could look around to see what was going on.

He was one part relieved he wasn't getting robbed but also one part terrified still because it was Ignis, standing there in the kitchen. His kitchen. Cooking.

“Um, hello?”

He set down the dumbbell but didn't move from his spot in the hallway. Ignis stood frozen and looking clearly caught.

“Ah, Prompto. You're awake.”

“What...the fuck are you doing?” He crossed his arms, suddenly very aware that he was there in nothing but his boxers.

“I wanted to make amends, for my behavior.”

Prompto huffed up a little. “So you broke into my house.”

Ignis set a pan off the stove and turned to look at him. Prompto straightened up and lifted his chin, but still kept his arms protectively in front of himself.

“I didn't break in. Noctis gave me his key.”

Prompto immediately deflated. “Course he did. You guys have zero sense of personal space.”

Ignis adjusted his glasses and looked around the kitchen. “I can leave, if this is too…”

“It's a lot of things,” Prompto sighed and scratched at his head. “Look. Just. One second okay?” He moved quickly to his room and dove under the covers with his phone.

Prompto: _Dude what the FUCK is ignis doing here_

Noct _: He asked for the key! He said he needed to take you something that you left with him._

Prompto: _He's cooking. In my kitchen,. Is that all he told you?_

Prompto changed into his sweatpants and shirt while waiting for a response. Then looked down at himself, and changed again into his jeans and a tank top. Looking himself over in the mirror, he fluffed his hair a bit. Then grabbed his phone after it pinged.

Noct _: What else would he have told me, prom?_

Prompto: _Nothing nevermind bye see you tonight thanks for letting someone into my HOUSE_

He turned his phone on silent and shoved it in his back pocket. He put his glasses on - contacts later would be almost a relief after days of his glasses.

He stepped out into the kitchen and--

Ignis was gone.

He looked around. There was one plate set with food on his small table he hardly ever used, with a small vase with a few simple flowers.

And a note.

Prompto sat and felt...fuck he felt sad. What had he really expected? Ignis to stay? To kiss and make up? That twinge of darkness threatened him again because okay ya, maybe he did need to not be alone with his thoughts right now. He touched the note carefully and opened it with a touch of reverence.

_Please do forgive me for being what surely accounts for the most terrible person in Eos during our time together. You only tried to make the best of a terrible situation, and I was terribly stubborn the whole time. I hope this makes up for it, at least a little._

He dropped the note. The food was...Prompto realized it was exactly what he had ordered in the diner - french toast, orange marmalade….

Fuck no why was he crying. He rested his elbows on the table and pushed the heels of his palms up under his glasses. No, he wasn't gonna fucking cry over a guy he fooled around with a little --

“Prompto?”

He flew out of his seat and sent the vase careening off the table as his knees hit the underside. There were shouts as he fumbled to keep it from hitting the ground, and in the end he laid on the floor on his back, vase on this chest held up, with Ignis standing over him.

“I thought...you left.”

Ignis cleared his throat. “I just used your bathroom.”

Prompto closed his eyes, because Ignis had probably seen him crying. Fuck.

“Thanks, for the breakfast.”

Ignis offered up his hand. Prompto looked at it, then him, and then took it and let himself get pulled up. He set the vase down on the table with care.

“What about you,” he gestured. “You only made enough for one?”

Ignis was the one to look awkward this time. “I didn't want to assume. I’ve already eaten today. I just wanted to make sure you had a good meal.”

He stared. Then he decided.. “Well, can't let it get cold I guess.” So he sat and started to eat, while Ignis moved back to the kitchen and started to clean up. He tried to push down the part of him excited that Ignis was still there.

“Okay wow, this is really fucking good Iggy,” the name slipped out, and he looked up at Ignis with wide eyes. But Ignis was just smiling at the sink.

“Good.”

Prompto felt himself smile, and went back to eating. He finished the meal in silence, and when done walked the plate to the kitchen to wash it, but Ignis was there immediately ready to take it from him.

“I can wash my own dishes.”

“That's not the point,” Ignis scolded and pulled at the plate. His other hand touched prompto’s elbow, causing him to jump.

“Apologies,” Ignis muttered.

“It's cool,” Prompto pulled back, leaning against the counter. He studied Ignis as he dried the plate and put it away.

“What are you doing here, really.” Prompto swallowed, trying to stand tall and calm though his heart beat in his throat.

At first he wasn't sure Ignis would answer, then suddenly ignis was facing him, and close, hand on the counter sliding towards Prompto. He did his best not to move, not to back away.

“After we parted ways, I...reflected. On a lot of things I had said. And did. I wanted to make amends, as I stated.” Ignis moved like water, fluid and calm, until he was so close Prompto could slide his hand towards his own if he wanted. But he held strong.

“Like I said,” Prompto pushed off the counter, “its cool. I'm sure you have better things to do today than babysit me.”

A hand on his upper arm made him freeze. He turned to Ignis, who looked down at him with soft eyes.

“Prompto, please.” A small tug of this arm.

Prompto stepped towards Ignis, but really wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He looked up at those pleading green eyes.

“What?”

Ignis's’ hand moved then, up his arm, to his shoulder, and his other reached up to cup his jaw. Prompto seized up.

“Ignis-”

“I didn't know,” Ignis whispered and he was so close to Prompto's face and there was so much of him that wanted to just. Yes. he wanted this, but also -

“Didn’t know what?” That Prompto was a hot mess? That much was super obvious.

“Why you were in Niflheim. I treated you so terribly and-”

“Wait, what?” Prompto snapped out of the fog that had started to fall around him and pulled away out of Ignis’s grasp. He didn’t talk about his family aside from that he was visiting them, purposefully said in that way, there was no way Ignis should know except...

“Noct, he said something didn’t he.”

Ignis sighed. “He did, he thought you would have told me.”

“Well I didn’t so it’s none of your business. I don’t need your pity,” Prompto snapped. He didn’t mean to be so upset, but also this all made more sense, and he didn’t want Ignis to just give him affection because he felt _sorry_ for him. That’s why he never told anyone about his family to begin with. He hated the look people would give him, the one that Ignis was giving him there in his kitchen.

“Prompto, it’s not pity,” Ignis straightened up, “you can lean on people.”

“I don’t to,” Prompto said with clenched teeth. “Please leave.”

Without waiting for a response he stormed away to his room and slammed the door. He shed his clothes and hid under the covers once more. If it wasn’t the day of Noct’s party, he would have totally called to chew him out.

He waited until he heard the sound of his front door closing and then tried to calm his breathing enough to fall back to sleep.

He didn’t need ignis. He didn’t need anyone. He had been just fine on his own...

 

 

Prompto was startled awake by his phone ringing, his mind muddied coming out of a dream.

“Nkmhello?

“Prompto!” Gladio’s voice shouted into his ear. “Where the hell are you, the party starts soon.”

“What?” he looked at his phone - it was 5pm, “Shit!”

“I’m sending a ride your way”

“Wait!”

But Gladio hung up. Prompto cursed but he had no time - he couldn’t believe he slept the whole fucking day. He rolled out of bed and ran into this closet, where his suit hung waiting for him. Noct had made sure he had one for this event, despite Prompto’s firm request he not. He got dressed quickly and did his hair, put on a nice pair of studfs in his ears, and got his contacts in. He threw on his bracelets and rings just to have some of his own flair. He grabbed his camera bag also before he could forget, because he was supposed to be the photographer for the night.

_Fuck._

He ran to the door and slipped his shoes on - his phone chimed at that moment, a text from an unknown number that someone was downstairs.

He ran down to see the sleek black car, and let out only a small sigh it wasn’t Ignis.

The whole way over he tried not to think too much about the look Ignis had given Prompto. About how Ignis had made him the same food he had enjoyed at the diner. He tried not to think about Noct, his best friend, starting his own life and how Prompto fit in it. How he fit anywhere…

Before he knew it he had arrived at the venue, and Prompto felt immediately overwhelmed looking up the tall building. He had been to some of these fancy company parties before with Noct, but this was clearly something on another level. The party of the century, people were calling it, and that was before the wedding.

Wedding.

It was just a bit before people would be allowed inside, but Prompto was escorted past the line of people at the base of the building. Once at the top where the restaurant was, he stepped out of the elevator and let out a long whistle at the look of the place.

“Man Noct, they really went all out.” he shouted as he strode across the floor -

And stopped.

There was Ignis, standing beside Noctis and Luna, going over some paperwork. He fidgeted with his camera as they all looked up at him.

“Prom!” Noct smiled and ran over to him, wrapping arms around him in a big hug.

“Hey buddy,” Noct returned the hug with one arm, his other holding the camera out to the side.,

“Prompto!” Luna came over and gave him a kiss on the cheek and a hug.

“You look amazing, Luna,” Prompto said with a smile. And he meant it, she truly did. She was gorgeous in her champagne colored lace dress, small diamonds popping in the lighting of the venue **.** Despite his feelings and all the conflict he held in his head, Luna was an amazing person and he was grateful Noct had her in his life. She had become a great friend to him as well.

“Hey, what about me!” Noct elbowed him playfully before making a show of himself to show off his suit.

“You clean up alright,” Prompto said with a wink. He noted that the usual butterflies he might feel had subsided a little, and it was strange almost to not be so flustered around Noct asking how he looked. Because the answer of course was he looked handsome. But that had been almost a second thought to Prompto.

Interesting.

They all continued to talk together, and Prompto took a few selfies on his own phone with them before Ignis and Gladio came over.

“Doors are about to open.” Ignis very obviously didn't make eye contact with Prompto. That was fine. It was better that way. Despite the lump in his throat telling him otherwise.

“Well,” Noct said, looking at all them all huddled together, “let's have a party!”

 

* * *

 

Ignis had to focus on making sure everything went smoothly that night, not on whatever it was that he had completely botched with Prompto. His attempt to gain forgiveness that morning had not been well thought out, which had left Ignis worried for himself. He normally considered himself a reasonable person who didn't make rash decisions, but it seemed Prompto had some sort of effect over his thought process. After leaving Prompto's, he had put himself fully into the party. It was easier to make that his point of truth.

But then he had seen Prompto, all cleaned up in a suit and his voice had nearly caught in his throat with the way Ignis had wanted to just rush over and speak to him. The only thing he could think to do to avoid serious embarrassment was to not speak to Prompto. .

It wasn’t polite, nor mature, or anything that Ignis had just days before considered himself. But he couldn’t let himself be lost to the emotions and confusion that had been plaguing him since the day before.

But as the party went on and everything went smoothly, he found himself lacking for much to do. He ended up in a corner near the window overlooking the city of Insomnia - a beautiful sight, truly. He sipped from his champagne glass and took in a sigh.

“So you finally stopped moving around for five minutes,” Gladio’s voice came from the side, a heavy hand resting on the table. Ignis found he couldn’t look him in the eye.

“Just for five.” He said with a smile and took another sip of the drink to let the bubbles rest on his tongue. “Listen, I know I’ve said it a hundred times, but --”

“Please stop thanking me, it’s getting old.” A warm hand rested on his shoulder. Ignis found he could no longer avoid looking at his friend, so he set down his drink and turned.

Gladio was there, yes, but Prompto stood just behind him, looking down at his hands. Ignis flinched and glared at Gladio.

Gladio gave Ignis a look, never one to be scared off by Ignis of course, and squeezed his shoulder. Gods, what had he sorted out? Gladio slid away and whispered something to Prompto that made him straighten up. When Ignis watched him walk away, he went towards Noctis and Luna on the other side.

But they were all watching, out f the corner of their eyes.

Ignis cleared his throat and tried to smile as Prompto stepped up to the table as if he were about to be yelled at.

But Prompto only laid his hands flat on the table, then rested his forehead there.

Ignis stilled and watched, the seconds passing. “Prompto?”

He noted how Prompto’s shoulders tensed at his name.

“Let me guess,” Ignis slid his glass out of the way, “you had a few drinks. You said something. They have sent you over here so that we can talk.”

He looked up and caught how indeed the others in a not so subtle way at all turned to look out the window as if suddenly enthralled with the cityscape.

“It was just one drink,” Prompto muttered against the table, “and I told Noct before that anyways.”

Ignis let out a hum. He looked out to the city scape, then back to Prompto, who still hadn’t moved.

“Why?”

Prompto lifted his head, met Ignis’s eyes, then rose up and fixed his coat. “I realized I don’t...know you. Not really. I figured Noct would be able to tell me something. And I guess when you were just not speaking to me at first I thought it was fine but then I got more upset, so I thought Noct would know if this was I don't know… Normal."

“Ah,”

“Then he called Gladio.”

Ignis let himself lean on the table, their elbows close. “Hmm.”

Prompto snapped up to him. “Ignis, look, the past few days were a disaster on so many levels.”

Ignis flattened his palms on the table and studied his fingers instead of looking at the intense eyes studying him.

He watched as Prompto’s fingers slid closer, their pinky fingers touching. The touch was simple and yet made Ignis tense.

“Perhaps,” Ignis said when Prompto seemed to be stuck, “we should try...again, under better circumstances.”

He lifted his fingers to slide across Prompto’s slowly. Prompto didn’t move, but when Ignis looked up at him his eyes were wide. As if he thought things wouldn’t go this way.

“Prompto, you don’t give yourself enough credit. We got back home in time because of you. Who knows how long we would have been stuck in Niflheim. That storm is still causing ridiculous delays. Who knows who we would have been stuck with dealing with such a terrible time. At the end of it all, I am glad I got to know you, through all of this.”

Prompto visibly swallowed and sucked in a breath.

“Silver lining, and all that,” Ignis smiled softly and curled his fingers finally around Prompto’s hand. And just when he thought maybe he had misread everything, and why he was there beside him, Prompto flipped his hand over so they were palm to palm. They interlocked fingers --

“Woo!”

They both winced and turned to see Noct holding up his drink, with Luna and Gladio trying to shush him.

“I guess you were right, huh.” Prompto whispered with a laugh as they returned to each other and looked out the window together.

“About what?”

Prompto opened his mouth, then pressed his lips shut. When he turned to look at Ignis, the city reflected in his eyes and the blush across his cheeks was beautiful.

Instead of answering, Prompto just asked. “When can you get out of here?”

 

* * *

 

Okay, so Prompto had maybe thought he’d messed up by telling Noctis and then Gladio and then _Luna_ about what had happened during their trip. But he was losing his mind - the man had been in his house! What was he supposed to do with those mixed messages and now -

Now he wasn’t sure what was happening except that they were in Ignis’s home. He was in Iggy’s house, and Ignis was talking and probably explaining something about where his shoes should go or about how he shouldn't touch anything or something else he was destined to fuck up as he stepped forward.

But Prompto’s heart beat so hard all he heard was the sound of his pulse and Iggy's words were lost to him as he stood in the entrance of the apartment.

Ignis had gotten into the living room and turned and looked at him, as he unbuttoned his suit jacket.

Something in the look he gave made Prompto press himself back against the door with a hope he could dissolve into it, because he wasn’t sure what he was doing there. Ignis was out of his league, clearly. Just looking at him was proof enough and he had been foolish to even think he had a chance and why had he listened to Noct -

“Prompto?”

Fuck, he was saying his name again. It always sounded so good rolling off his tongue.

“mFine. Just.. .”

They were sober. OK, so last time he would hardly call themselves drunk but; when Ignis had suggested they try again he had imagined something like, coffee. Dinner. Something public. But instead he had gone and opened his mouth and they wound up here. Okay maybe Gladio had pushed them both out the door together a little.

It was just a lot. Again.

And he really didn't know what he was supposed to do. Were they going to just have coffee there? It was almost midnight, that didn't make any sense.

Ignis by this point had put his suit coat away in a closet and was rolling his sleeves as he walked into the kitchen.

“I can make some tea? Or coffee? Though it is late.”

“I-.” Prompto still hadn’t moved from the door.

Ignis studied him, and he deflated a little. “You don't need to feel obligated to stay. If this is too much."

Shit. He was fucking this up again wasn’t he. Prompto pushed off the door and slipped his shoes off, keeping eye contact with Ignis.

“I'm good. I’m good.”

Ignis clearly didn’t believe him, but he started to go about making tea. Prompto stepped in and also removed his suit jacket - it was stuffy as fuck anyway. Iggy's house was as he would have expected; neat and tidy and classy, full of books, minimalist. So different than his place. Which he had seen that morning.

Fuck.

He stepped into the kitchen and wasn't sure what to do with his hands, or himself, really. Ignis’s back was to him, standing still and obviously watching hot water boil.

Okay. Prompto really had to stop fucking this up.

He took two steps forward and stopped right behind Ignis. He lowered his head so it rested against his back. Ignis tensed at the contact.

“Look. I’m a mess. You saw that. You saw the real me. Like...that wasn't just because shit was a mess temporarily.”

Ignis put his hands on the counter. “Prompto,”

“No I mean it. That was it. You want to talk, you want to uh...try a-again. That was just your teaser for what being around me is like.”

Ignis stepped forward as much as he could. He then turned and Prompto had a face full of Iggy's chest. He tried to step away, but hands grabbed his forearms and held him in place, and he fought every urge to cower and instead looked up at intense green eyes, stern jaw, and tight lips.

“You need to stop doing that.”

“I-”

Whatever argument he had was lost.

Ignis leaned down and they were kissing, Ignis was kissing _him_. His brain caught up, and he reached out to grab Ignis’s shirt. He tugged and pulled himself up on his toes, and Ignis slid his hands around Prompto to grip at his back.

Last time they kissed it was a desperate moment where he wasn't sure what he wanted, but he had needed _something_.

This time Prompto might know a little more about what he wanted, as Ignis pulled into a deeper kiss and the taste of Ignis invaded his senses.

Prompto leaned back to breath, or he might black out, it was so dizzying. Ignis followed his movement, but pressed their foreheads together instead of going in for another kiss.

Prompto couldn't help a laugh.

“What?” Ignis sounded a little hoarse, his voice low, and it was hot and they were supposed to be taking things slow or something, right?

Wait was that what they had said? Prompto wasn't sure anymore of anything.

“Just. This. Is that- I mean...”

Ignis kissed Prompto’s forehead in a way that was much too soft but also he wanted more. Then his temple, then his jaw, until he was trailing kisses down his throat. Prompto pulled back more to give him some space to think, to not just -

Ignis was _nuzzling_ his neck. Prompto did his best to really step away, and Ignis trailed his hands after him.

Prompto held on to the counter with one hand to keep from falling over, or back into Ignis's arms. “I thought we had to start over?”

Ignis cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses before giving Prompto a serious look. “If you would like, we can start slow, from the beginning.”

Prompto leaned against the counter, bracing his hands against the cool surface. What did he want? What did he really want with Ignis, here in his fancy apartment, staring at Ignis with his shirt that had somehow become unbuttoned down to his sternum, with a few strands of hair hanging down over his forehead, which his lips…

“We could start slow…” Prompto repeated, but he watched how Ignis shifted, putting himself upright a little more and making as if to do just that, to reset everything properly.

Prompto recalled two nights before. The warmth of Ignis pressed up to him, how he looked as he slid down his body. It sent a shock through his body.

Prompto didn’t want to wait to experience anything like that again. Not if he could help it.

“Or,” Prompto fought against every unsure nerve of his body and pushed off the counter to stand in the center of the kitchen, “we can skip to the part where I finally get to return the favor.” He managed to speak despite the nerves coursing through him, because he wasn’t entirely sure he knew what he was doing.

At that, Ignis’s eyes flashed something reminiscent of the night they had together and Prompto knew he had said the right thing, the thing they both wanted but were somehow unable to say. And something in that made his body move toward Ignis again because this man, who was posh and perfect and put together, had that reaction to the idea of Prompto touching him. _Prompto_.

He wasn’t sure he had ever felt so powerful and terrified all at once like this before.

He surged forward and reunited with Ignis. His hands immediately ran up under the silk shirt and pulled it the rest of the way out of his pants. Prompto let his fingers slide up, appreciating the toned muscles, appreciating the way they flexed under his touch. He tried to control his breathing but -

“Perhaps we should ah,” Ignis shifted and gripped Prompto's waist, “move to the bedroom? Or the couch, or somewhere anywhere I can have you properly.”

Prompto groaned. Okay, his new life goal was to hear Ignis talk dirty. Maybe next time.

Next time.

Next time next time next time.

He nearly leapt up to meet Ignis's’ lips and put everything he could into the kiss as he pulled him by the belt loops. Through careful navigation they managed to collapse on the couch with only minor bumps along the way. Prompto immediately placed himself on the floor between Ignis’s knees, their kisses long and deep and searching and Prompto hadn’t been so turned on in his entire life.

And Ignis didn’t seem to be faring any better, as Prompto cupped his erection and felt how hard he was through his pants.

“Gods,” Ignis whispered against his lips. It made Prompto pull back to see, to see his face, to see how wrecked he looked and _oh fuck_ he was so hot? How did he manage this.

Ignis’s shirt had been untucked and his erection pressed against his pants, the patch of skin above his zipper looked like the best thing in the world. Prompto fidgeted and tucked his fingers against the skin under his pants and looked up to Ignis.

“Is this?”

“Prompto, _please_.”

Another embarrassing moan escaped his lips as he unzipped Ignis’s pants. He reveled at how hard he was confined in his underwear, and his mouth watered at the sight.

He wanted so much more than just to taste it. He wanted to feel it. _Oh gods._

“Oh?” Ignis chuckled.

Prompto snapped his head up with surprise.

“You said that out loud.” Ignis replied with a small smirk.

And Prompto felt himself go about ten shades of red. “I’m sorry, it’s just. I’m - “

“You’re fine, I promise.”

Prompto took in a breath. He traced his eyes down the length of Ignis. He slid his hands up strong thighs, let his thumbs slide up on either side of Ignis’s cock and drag back down. The sounds he made already had Prompto’s head spinning.

“Ok no you’re right I’m not sorry.”

Ignis - did he just _growl_ \- he did, he fucking growled and then had Prompto up and somehow lifted him. Prompto yelped and wrapped his legs around his waist for purchase.

“Change of plans, I must take you to my bedroom immediately.”

“Oh six fuck yes ok.”

Prompto didn’t get to see much of the apartment as they moved because he focused on a delicious spot on Iggy’s throat that required his attention. Ignis only hummed and muttered _hold on_ several times before he all but kicked a door open that signaled they had gotten to the bedroom and Prompto was dropped onto his back on a lush soft bed.

Before Prompto could even look around, Ignis devoured his mouth once again as his deft hands worked at Prompto’s clothes. Before, they hadn’t the honor of undressing each other, already in just those robes but here, feeling Ignis’s fingers sliding across his skin was like fire as he removed each article of clothing and his tongue trailed after his touches. It left Prompto without any air in his lungs and no voice left and it was amazing, the best, he had made the best decision ever.

“One moment,” Ignis’s voice was hoarse when he finally came up for air after sucking on Prompto’s hip bone.

Prompto bucked his hips up. Ignis kept one hand on him as he leaned back, and then away. He was gone only moments but it felt like an eternity, the sound of rummaging in a drawer, and he lay there naked and waiting.

The doubts crept in, just a little, until Ignis was back and his shirt off as he stretched over him. Prompto tugged at his pants and soon those were gone, and then they were both naked, their erections bumping each other.

“Gods,” Prompto lifted his arms over his head and pulled at the sheets.

“I agree,” Ignis lifted Prompto’s leg, as he sat there between his knees and kissed under the knee.

Prompto signed and whined.

“Is this heaven? Did I die on the way home and this is the way the gods are making up for such a terrible time? If I’m dead I’m okay - aaaah-” he was interrupted by Ignis’s fingers stretching him. He arched his back and closed his eyes and tried to relax, to let out a long breath and embrace the feeling. He could feel eyes on him, and when he looked the dark of green eyes bored into him. Ignis looked like he wanted to eat Prompto alive.

“Holy shit holy shit.”

Ignis hummed, and Prompto closed his eyes as Ignis's other hand wrapped around him. It was perfect, it distracted him from the stretch, it made him want to scream out even more, it made him want just _more_.

He heard the sound of a condom and his body got about ten times hotter in the exact second he realized this is happening. Ignis was about to --

“Prompto?”

He lifted his arms up from the sheets and dragged his fingers through Ignis’s hair, making direct eye contact as hard as it was for him to do so, and nodded.

As Ignis entered him, they held eye contact for as long as he could before he had to lay back and squeeze his eyes tight from the sensation. He could feel Ignis clinging to his thighs for dear life and he might be bruised tomorrow. He _hoped_ he would be bruised tomorrow, holy fuck.

Ignis moved slowly until he was completely enveloped. He let go of Prompto’s legs and fell forward, hands on either side of Prompto’s shoulders, and he adjusted himself a little to accommodate the position, legs wrapped around Ignis’s waist.

He opened his eyes to see Ignis very close to his face. He couldn’t help a blush.

“You feel. Stunning. Just.” Ignis breathed out and tentatively moved his hips. They both whined in their throats and Prompto brought his arms around to dig his fingers back once more in Ignis’s hair and bring him closer.

That was all they needed apparently, because then they were kissing deep and slow and their hips moved, meeting each other in a rhythm that had Ignis breathing against his mouth within minutes.

Then he felt Ignis reach between them and grip Prompto, and it was so much in that moment. They were both speaking gibberish, mantras of please and each others names, and then Prompto’s body went tight as the orgasm hit him by surprise. He arched and clung tight, crying out into Ignis’s shoulder.

With just a few more thrusts, Ignis moaned into Prompto’s ear and holy astrals Prompto wanted that to be his ringtone for life.

Ignis all but collapsed on top of him, and their arms wrapped around each other They lay like that a few moments, breathing deeply.

“Shower?” Ignis muttered.

“Mm.” Prompto cleared his throat and tried to ignore the way doubt tried to claw its way up. Would Ignis except him to leave after?

“It’s got plenty of room,” Ignis somehow managed to say with such a way that was beyond sexy, and then he gave Prompto a small kiss before moving away. Prompto grunted at the sensation, but then pulled himself up. He smiled at Ignis, who took his hand and helped him carefully towards the bathroom.

Prompto had never gone two rounds back to back in his life before, but he found out it was in fact possible, especially in a roomy shower.

 

* * *

 

Sunday morning had a routine. Wake up early, make coffee, shower, read the news. Go over the agenda for Monday and make any necessary preparations. Check in on Noctis to make sure he woke up. Check in on him again mid-afternoon. If needed go over to clean and make food.

Today was Sunday.

It was noon. And Ignis was still in bed.

He let out a yawn, and the warm body beside him curled up to him more, legs and arms wrapped around him.

“Prompto, love,.” Ignis kissed his temple and ran his fingers through soft blond hair. It was a crime, how comfortable he was, how comfortable _they_ were.

He’d never thought anyone could actually disrupt his schedule, but here he was, more than content to spend one morning a week doing absolutely nothing.

And he loved it.

It had been one month since Noct’s engagement party. He and Prompto had no sort of routine really on when they saw each other, except this. Sunday mornings were always theirs.

The best day of the week, certainly.

Prompto opened his eyes and caught Ignis staring. He smiled, bashfully, and buried his face into Ignis’s neck in response.

“Don’t do thaaat.”

“Mmm what, stare at your beautiful face?” Ignis smiled. His fingers trailed from Prompto’s hair down his neck, his spine, causing him to shudder.

“Stooooop.”

Ignis pulled gently at Prompto so he was made to lay on top of him. He cocooned him quickly and kissed him, tenderly. Prompto melted, as if they could become one person in that moment.

He opened his eyes as they broke the kiss, noses touching. Prompto’s face was red, and Ignis openly stared because he had still not yet counted all the freckles on his face.

He didn’t say anything, but Prompto did that smile again, that one that showed he could read Ignis’s face. He got cozy there, head nestled up under Ignis’s chin, while he drew small circles on Prompto's back, and they both started to doze once more.

 

 

Ignis considered himself a lot of things.

Some were things that made him capable of doing his job very well.

But, more importantly, were the things that made him able to be the best he could be his love, who deserved all the world and more.

 

~END~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again!!! I'm not done with promnis, far from it - I'm excited to be participating in the Promnis Big Bang!! So I'll have more of these two in that event, if not sooner if I do more quick one shots. I've been starting to poke around the kinkmeme for some ideas. :333
> 
> You're comments and kudos kept me going through this journey. <3 
> 
> also some sidebar convos i had in my head but no easy way to place them :  
> \- prom breaking down about the cakes and noct of course being like yo wtf its not biggee ill just order some online omg  
> \- noct being like wait a sec IGGY KISSES when prom confesses  
> \- Gladio almost for a second going to smack sense into iggy but prompto stopping him  
> \- luna being an angel and smiling through all this  
> \- noct and gladio and luna had a bet for how quickly ignis and prom would make up and luna won  
> \- iggy and prom talk ALOT after that night ok just let me focus on the soft and schmoop

**Author's Note:**

> if you guess what popular 80s movie this is roughly based off of i'm so sorry and also excellent please experience the shock and awe I did when i watched it for the first time recently and realized it was the perfect romcom for these two. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> You can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/crazyloststar) or [tumblr](http://crazyloststar.tumblr.com/), happy to chat more! About so many things!


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